Downtown Tekamah Buildings Burn

Nearly an entire block of main street Tekamah buildings caught fire on the night of Tuesday, September 23. Fire Departments from Tekamah, Craig, Herman, and Blair responded to the blaze. It's my understanding that the buildings had been abandoned for quite some time and that the cause of the fire is thought to be suspicious.

While it's always unfortunate when a historic building comes to a tragic end, I think the greater tragedy in this instance is the fact that these buildings were allowed to deteriorate and become abandoned in the first place.

While the demographics of Tekamah may make some aspects of retail business more difficult than that of other communities, I believe that some creativity coupled with forward thinking, community oriented individuals could have prevented the demise of these buildings.

One has to ask, what's worse - having a set of abandoned, deteriorating buildings as part of downtown or having a gaping hole on main street? While the buildings may be gone, hopefully the situation will provide an incentive to begin a revitalization of downtown Tekamah.