Woman’s Club may get fixes

Grant would help repair three doors on Boynton building built in 1925

An 89-year-old building may get a much needed face-lift, thanks to a Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency grant.

On Tuesday, the agency will discuss giving a grant to the historic Woman’s Club to fix three of the aging structure’s doors. The Woman’s Club, which was built in 1925, is in danger of closing its battered entryways if it doesn’t get the money it needs for repairs.

Fixing the Woman’s Club could cost up to $500,000 for new windows, doors, an A/C unit and other maintenance, according to the club’s estimates.

At the meeting, the agency could jump-start the club’s rehabilitation efforts with a $30,000 grant.

“For several years, the club has been unable to devote our very limited resources to the preservation of this very important building,” Barbara Weinberg and Patricia Waldron, co-chairwomen of the Boynton’s Woman’s Club Preservation Committee, wrote in an email last month to agency Executive Director Vivian Brooks.

The wood in six of the club’s doors is rotting away. With the grant, the three most battered doors could be fixed first.

“This grant will give us the opportunity to begin to address a major window and door restoration throughout the building,” Weinberg and Waldron wrote in the e-mail.

Normally, the façade grant requires that the applicant pay for the upgrades. The agency then reimburses the cost, but the club is asking for a bit of leeway.

“The full cost will put a serious strain on our capital reserves and any consideration you could give us would be greatly appreciated,” Weinberg and Waldron wrote to Brooks.

If the agency board agrees, the grant will be split into two phases. The club will fix the first two doors at a cost of $15,000, before being compensated. Then the club will fix another door for $15,000, which would be followed by a second pay out.

Bill Rielly, president of Rielly Construction Corporation, will be working on the project.

He said that the rotten wood will be replaced with Spanish Cedar, which is rot-resistant. The original bolts, knobs and hinges will be kept in place. He expects that it will take 35 days to complete the job.

In other notes, the agency board will discuss buying three properties in the Heart of Boynton to further the redevelopment of the area.

The agency plans to purchase a home on the city’s proposed “model block” on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and a residential property in the city’s proposed “cottage district.”

The agency may also purchase a vacant lot near its other properties to give the area continuity, because split parcels have been identified as a major roadblock to development, according to the Heart of Boynton’s redevelopment plan.

The cost for all three properties is $410,000, according to county appraisals.