It took a year, several hundred volunteer hours, and months of planning, but Combined Community Services is completely moved into its new home on Prairie Street.

"We've had a lot of help getting in here," said CCS director Marty Courtney. "It's been a long process just to find a place."

Formerly located at 212 E. Market St., the agency was notified last November by its landlord, Reub Williams & Sons Inc., that a buyer was interested in the property. A previous agreement between the parties allowed CCS at least six months to find a new site, an allowance that was later extended to one year.

One hurdle CCS had to overcome was paying for a new headquarters after staying at the former site rent-free since 1984. Help for that expense came from the community CCS serves.

Besides using its own building fund savings, CCS received help from a $10,000 donation from St. Anne's Episcopal Church, and was the recipient of a bequest from a local citizen's will.

Once the former garden center was purchased, however, the agency had some work to do to transform a pole barn structure into offices, pantry and storage space.

Again, the community responded, Courtney said, with volunteers donating time and labor painting, making repairs, installing a loft, moving walls and putting in carpet. Area businesses also helped, by either providing services and materials for free or by charging only for materials and donating their labor.

The new one-story headquarters has the same amount of office space as the former building, but has a larger lobby, more pantry space, plenty of room for parking, and a large enough property to allow for expansion.

While some minor work still has to be done to improve the flow in the clothing pantry, she said, the move is complete and CCS is gearing up for the holiday season. And along with the holidays this year comes another set of worries.

Until the "Dunkin' Dig" event Sunday, during which anyone could use canned goods to buy a throw to dunk Warsaw restaurateur Bill DeGaetano, CCS's food pantry was bare. And even though Dig's contribution will help, she said, it's not enough.

"I've never seen us so low on food," Courtney said, a problem that is doubled this year because of fewer contributions and more requests for help because of the state's reduction of the food stamp rolls.

Contributions are down as well, she said, both to CCS and to United Way, from which CCS gets much of its funding.

"If United Way doesn't make its goal, we won't get what we asked for," she said. "And if we don't get our money, we will have to cut staffing or services."

Funding is a concern on another level, Courtney said. Now that the move is complete, she has a new worry - how to pay for building maintenance.

"It's a relief that we're here, but I'm concerned about financial contributions for upkeep," she said. "At the old place we just sort of patched things together because we knew we wouldn't be there forever. Now that we've got this it would be nice to keep it up the way it should be." [[In-content Ad]]