New Sheetz construction threatens residents who live at planned site

Artist Bob Wood slides a paper towel across his mylar-encased paintings, pushing the raindrops off his nude figures and smiling families sprawled across his display table at the Black Squirrel Festival.

The constant drizzle dropping down on Risman Plaza and trickling onto his paintings suggests this is an exercise in futility. Nevertheless, he wipes the droplets off his life’s work, preparing to sell the pieces for about the same cost of a DVD.

“I’m in a desperate position,” Wood said.

Pennsylvania-based Sheetz, a gas station and convenience store open 24 hours a day, has targeted his home at Crain Avenue and North Mantua Street for its next location.

Tim Crock, Wood’s landlord for 17 of his 25 years in Kent, is in the final stages of selling his land parcels, spanning from the Johnson building where Woods lives to his own auto shop at the corner of Fairchild Avenue.

“I feel like my home is suddenly being taken from me,” he said to the Kent Planning Commission, but the law is not on his side.

The gray-bearded renter, like the other tenants living in the 102-year-old Johnson building, holds no lease with Crock. Crock said he has wanted to unload the property for a decade, even encouraging Wood to buy it. Wood says no bank would give him a mortgage based on his earning ability, though he admits he never tried.

Crock’s decision to sell wasn’t based on money, which he insists isn’t much, but he wouldn’t divulge how much. “Quite frankly, I don’t want to be a landlord anymore,” he said.

Sheetz has also bought out the custom T-shirt shop on the northern side of the 102-year-old sandstone edifice, also home to the Open Space Art Gallery, run by artisan Frederick John Kluth.

Unless the Kent Board of Zoning Appeals, meeting Sept. 15 to discuss the issue, overturns the planning commission’s decision to grant Sheetz’s request, Wood’s “desperate position” is unlikely to change.

The landscape in the area, however, will change dramatically. The new $20.2 million bridge project funded by federal and county coffers will eliminate a traffic-clogging dogleg while directly linking Fairchild Avenue to North Water Street. The project, slated to begin March 2009, will also add green space and improvements to the Hike and Bike trail system.

Sheetz also hopes to start construction next spring. Once the gas station gains ownership, Woods and the others will be evicted. When asked what will happen to him, he despondently responded, “I have nowhere to go.”

The 65-year-old’s meager fixed income only allows him $300-400 a month for rent, and he is not eligible to receive social security.

Crock and his employees will merge with the larger Main Street Auto Center downtown.

Kluth, in the same sinking boat, won’t become homeless but will lose the gallery he has operated for six years. Inspired by May 4, he has amassed a diverse collection of Vietnamese art brought back by US soldiers. One piece, a two-foot temple guardian carved from gilded wood, sells for $3,000.

“We’re trying to move forward with art in Kent,” he says. “The Sheetz project is a slap in the face.”

While artists stand to lose what Wood calls a haven, Crock says Kent will benefit from the 40 new jobs and tax revenue generated from the new business.

“I think that will more than compensate for what the city loses with the buildings lost for the bridge project,” he said.

Next Monday, Woods and Kluth will find out if this storm will pass.

“If it’s still possible to make a difference by speaking, I will,” Woods says.

Contact public affairs reporter John Hitch at [email protected].