Marble Rock bank closed after damage this week

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Marble Rock First Security Bank & Trust customers will need to go to another branch office or do their banking online for at least a while after the bank building was damaged this week.

On Tuesday morning, shortly after the bank opened, a piece of the decorative cornice at the top of the building and part of the brickwork broke off, falling to the ground.

No one was injured and no damage occurred inside the building, said First Security President and CEO Kurt Herbrechtsmeyer, but the office was closed immediately and remains closed while the building is being examined by the bank’s insurance company and an engineer.

“It’s not safe to walk in front of the building or use the entrance,” he said.

Herbrechtsmeyer said most customers will be able to find other options to do their business with First Security while the Marble Rock branch is closed, but there is a concern about the 80 or so people who have safe deposit boxes in the bank.

“Other customers could go to Rockford or something like that, but those safe deposit box customers, obviously, have no access to those right now,” he said.

The bank is working on making a side entrance safe and handicapped-accessible for people who need access to their safety-deposit boxes, he said. Anyone who needs immediate access should contact the branch in Rockford or Charles City to make arrangements.

Herbrechtsmeyer said he doesn’t know how long the bank office will remain closed.

“Talking to our contractor yesterday, it’s really hard to find a mason to do brick work right now,” he said.

He said the bank will have to evaluate its options for the future.

The bank office had fairly low traffic when it was open, Herbrechtsmeyer said. It was only open three hours a day, Monday through Friday.

“We’re going to have to look at what it would take to keep that building open, or what other type of facility we might be able to utilize in Marble Rock to continue,” he said.

“Obviously, if the price tag comes back tremendously large, knowing that this is a building that is going to require a lot of maintenance — it has required a lot of maintenance over the years; it’s certainly going to continue to — we’re going to have to evaluate that.

“We want to know, first, what the condition of the structure really is at this point,” he said.

The Marble Rock bank was the first First Security branch opened outside of Charles City, Herbrechtsmeyer said.

“Our history in Marble Rock is very long,” he said. First Security purchased the building and opened a branch office on June 1, 1935. It had been a Farmers Trust and Savings Bank prior to that.

“It’s a step back in time,” Herbrechtsmeyer said about the building. “It has beautiful old woodwork, old iron teller cages, fantastic old features, beautiful furniture. There’s something there to be preserved, there really is. Or rescued, or something.

“There’s some amazing stuff in there that needs to be gotten out of there if that building isn’t going to continue. It’s historic. It’s a treasure,” he said.

“We have our ideas of the condition because of the amount of time our contractor has spent in that building over the years, but we’re certainly going to listen to the experts as to what they see as the future for that building. But it is a very old building, and it’s not in the best condition, obviously,” he said.

“It’s going to be closed for the duration until we get some answers on this,” Herbrechtsmeyer said. “We just want people to understand and be patient.”