New sidewalks were laid around the property, including in front of the church and school buildings at the Polk County Museum.
Projects have been happening at the Polk County Museum in Osceola. The storm in June caused damage to trees but luckily the buildings were okay. Smith Electric trenched in some power to the south part of the property (the school and church). This will be helpful for cleaning and for events in the school and church. Next the sidewalk was laid around the property by Boruch Masonry Construction. The Governor Mickey mansion, the Davis house and the Priest house were covered in asbestos siding. Finally a company that specializes in the safe removal of asbestos was hired and did a great job. With the asbestos gone, some of the beautiful architectural features were removed on the Mickey mansion. The Polk County Historical Society is looking into having these restored to recreate what the house once looked like. We’ve needed to tackle another major project and finally did this year. It’s not 100% done, but progress is going well. The Governor Mickey mansion has had some foundation issues. The south wall had a chimney collapse that almost took the entire wall down. There were also windows that had been boarded up for many years. The frames were rotted and the glass was broken out. Those things made it almost impossible to keep little creatures out. We had a company fix the walls, seal them up and fill the window openings in. They have a little work to do in the spring, but so far so good. The project will hopefully be wrapped up for Osceola’s Q150 celebration on July 4th weekend.
