The Historic City of Jefferson Foundation is adapting its Capitol Avenue Restoration Fund as a way for people to help with recovery from the May 22 EF-3 tornado.
The HCJ Foundation Inc. 501(c)(3) nonprofit's Capitol Avenue Restoration Fund was established in October as a way for the foundation to be able to step forward in the absence of other immediate buyers to purchase, temporarily hold and rescue condemned properties from demolition.
HCJ Foundation President Steve Veile said Monday that about $5,000 had been contributed to the fund for that purpose before the tornado, and none of it had yet been used for any projects.
"Now that the tornado struck, we felt that this (fund) would be a vehicle that we could now use also for the purpose of assisting with tornado relief efforts," Veile said.
He said money that was donated previously would be earmarked for blighted area restoration efforts, and new money that comes in will be used for tornado recovery - all focused on the Capitol Avenue area.
A GoFundMe campaign - at gofundme.com/capitol-avenue-restoration-fund - for tornado recovery has a $55,000 goal, which is the same goal the Capitol Avenue Restoration Fund's first phase since October had.
People may also donate to HCJ Foundation Inc. directly by sending checks to P.O. Box 237 in Jefferson City, MO, 65102.
Veile said the $55,000 goal for tornado recovery is just a place to start.
"We're thinking of things like somebody's trying to figure out if they can save their building. Maybe they need to hire a structural engineer to take a look at it," Veile said of purposes for money contributed for tornado recovery - addressing things that may be cheaper than buying a property but could still be barriers to a property owner being able to make repairs.
A committee is still working out the details of what could be funded, Veile said, but the HCJ Foundation's Board of Trustees was meeting this week to "try to get all of our guidelines and criteria put together," and he hoped that by the end of the month a significant amount of money would be in the fund to be disbursed for assistance.
"We certainly wouldn't want to provide money to demolish a building; that's not what we're about," he said. "We're definitely about historic preservation. We want to do everything we can to help save the buildings, and if there's anything we can do that might help in that effort, that's what we'd like the money to go towards."
Almost every building in the 600 block of East Capitol Avenue was damaged by the tornado, about half in the 500 block were damaged, and there was also some damage in the 700 block, Veile said.