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Canton’s Church & Community Program expects to move to Main Street location, but still needs more space

Posted 12/17/12

By JIMMY LAWTON CANTON -- Canton’s Church & Community Program needs a new home, but the options are few, according to director Catherine Mathews. Currently Mathews said the program operates a …

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Canton’s Church & Community Program expects to move to Main Street location, but still needs more space

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

CANTON -- Canton’s Church & Community Program needs a new home, but the options are few, according to director Catherine Mathews.

Currently Mathews said the program operates a thrift store and food pantry on the upper floors of 95 Main Street in a building owned by NYSARC, but the lease is set to expire in March.

“It originally expired in September and they extended it until March, they’ve been great to us I have no complaints, but we need to find somewhere else.”

Mathews said the new place could be the former Gray and Gray building located at 7-9 Main Street. She said the deal hasn’t closed, but she believes the program will be moving its operations into the building this spring. She said St. Vincent de Paul is also expected to move its thrift store into the building, meaning the stores would be side by side.

“I don’t know how that is going to work out for us, we’ll have to see,” she said.

Mathews said she is thankful for the opportunity to move to the new location, but the new building reduces space by about a third, which could lead to storage issues.

The program currently rents about 3,500 square feet, the new space would be just over 2,000

“We are probably going to have to reduce the size of the thrift store. It would be nice to have a bigger place, but we are very thankful for any option we can get right now,” she said.

Mathews said the search for a new location won’t likely end at the Gray and Gray building. She expects the program would operate out of there for a while should the deal close, but the lack of space will need to be addressed down the road.

“We need a new place to go and this looks like its going to be it,” she said. “It’s the best option we have.”