Agencies vacate Middletown City Building to accommodate school district move

Two longtime agencies that worked out of the Middletown City Building have moved out to make room for the Middletown City Schools District administration.

The district will move into the fourth floor in phases, starting in the middle of April and ending in the middle of July, school officials said.

The city waived the rent for the first two years, then the district will pay $5,425 per month, approximately the same amount the district spends for utilities and maintenance in its current facility on Girard Avenue, school officials said.

In order to accommodate the school, the offices of Keep Middletown Beautiful and Middfest vacated the city building recently.

Middfest, which had a presence in the building since 1980, has temporarily moved into the We Can Business Incubator, 108 Central Ave., said Virginia Ritan, executive director of Middfest. She said Middfest is still negotiating the cost of renting and office space and hopes to find permanent offices for its staff of five volunteers.

“We just aren’t settled yet,” Ritan said.

KMB has moved into the renovated Rathman Building in Smith Park, said Jeff Michel, director of the organization.

Ritan called moving boxes collected for more than 30 years “a very big challenge,” but added, “we made it.”

Ritan said the office space in the city building was the city’s “gift” to Middfest.

This year’s Middfest, set for Oct. 4-6 in downtown Middletown, will be the group’s third “retrospective year,” Ritan said. The theme will be “Exploring Our World Neighborhood,” she said.

The Middfest office is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Michel said the Smith Park site is “a better fit” than the city building for KMB and its 15-person staff because it’s located closer to where they do a lot of their work. He said the Rathman Building has been renovated and the space for KMB is free as it was in the City Building.

Now when Michel looks outside, he sees Smith Park and that “influences” him, he said.

“We love it here,” he said. “This is wonderful.”

Michel said the group will hold its Earth Day celebration from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 20 at Miami University Middletown. Michel called it “a real big event” that will include community clean-up and “whole educational series workshops” for adults and children.

He said volunteers will concentrate on Smith Park and spread mulch, paint the shelters and trim numerous trees.

For more information, call KMB at 513-465-2675.