The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 25, 2006

Habitat for Humanity store to sell new, slightly used construction goods

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — It’s tough for Denny Yetter to predict what kinds of light fixtures will fly off the shelves of Denco Lighting. Sometimes, he guesses wrong and ends up virtually giving his product away.

And Steve Meister, owner of a Mankato construction company, said he has no choice but to dump used cabinets, doors and windows in a landfill when he’s renovating houses.

Habitat for Humanity realized long ago that it could collect building materials — and scrape up some cash — from businesses that overstock, contractors with leftover materials and regular folks renovating their homes.

The nonprofit’s south-central Minnesota branch is about to become the sixth in the state to build a ReStore that will sell new and “gently used” construction equipment. It’s a way to collect building materials and money for its projects while sparing landfills from unnecessary waste.

The ReStore, located at 1751 Bassett Dr., will have a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday with an opening date sometime in March or April of next year.

Revenue from the store should cover the cost of one new home every year, executive director Julie Schmillen said. It’s not clear how much tonnage will be saved from the dump, but a similar store in Winona sells about 400 tons of goods a year.

About a third of the $610,743 construction cost has been raised through a fundraising campaign. Another $400,000 will be borrowed with bonds with the help of the cities of Mankato and Eagle Lake and other businesses have given their help, worth a combined $65,057.

The ReStore will also include new office and storage space, which will consolidate goods from four offsite locations. About half of the 8,000-square-foot facility will be devoted to storage.

One concrete bunker near Sibley Park is stacked with cabinets, windows and other household items. Schmillen points to a pair of long desks, saying they sell for nearly $3,000 apiece but will be sold at the ReStore for about half that price.

Other boxes contain dozens of tubes of caulk while doors are stacked against another wall.

Schmillen said the nonprofit builds five or six homes each year, far too few to use all of the materials that it can collect from donations. In the past, that meant that some materials were turned away.

Yetter recently donated several dozen light fixtures, more than double the amount that could go in one house.

He’s donated for awhile because he believes it’s a good cause, but now he can give more to Habitat than it needs for any one project.

Meister said he doubts that many contractors will donate unused goods because they can typically get a refund from their suppliers. But those suppliers could donate, and remodelers don’t have any way to get credit for used goods.

“It costs us money to take (construction materials) to the landfill,” Meister noted. “If we take it to somebody who can use it, that’d be great.”

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