Todd Coleman's Classic Furniture (corner Pearl and Main) is sprouting windows.

Until the past two days, all the work had taken place inside. The contractors hired by Todd Coleman to install windows couldn't proceed until interior walls previously erected in front of the windows were torn out. Those are being remodeled, too.

On Friday afternoon workers were peeling away the ancient outdoor covers to reveal the new windows.

Todd told me that on top of the grants made possible by the Horseshoe/Caesar Foundation, he's already spent close to a quarter million of his own dollars remodeling his properties here and on the corner of State and Market. He's also working on the building adjacent to the White House Center, and will tackle the smaller structure at 311 Pearl Street early next year.

Windows also are appearing at Schmitt Furniture.

Then there's the street level sheet metal eyesore across the street from Mesa.

Is he related to Bill Allen?

Cheerleading clinic: "Downtown New Albany's largest yearly pep session was held Thursday afternoon at The Grand."

Anything I might say about DNA's Pillar Awards would be superfluous (not to mention likely to be misinterpreted), so I'll confine my remarks to just one statement, which is not to be taken in any other way than straightforward and accurate:

For so long as Todd Coleman doesn't receive one of these awards, they'll continue to be meaningless.

Why am I saying this?

Because it's true. Now on to the boilerplate.

CHEERING ON NEW ALBANY: Develop New Albany hands out Pillar Awards, by Chris Morris (Hanson's Ongoing Tragedy)

NEW ALBANY — Downtown New Albany's largest yearly pep session was held Thursday afternoon at The Grand ...

The partial first sentence is followed by the obligatory inclusion of our Genius of the Flood Plain, as eloquent as usual without someone literate to spoon-feed him a script.

New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan praised the organization for promoting the downtown and hosting events to bring people to the area.

"They do a great job," he said.

Thanks to Todd Coleman and Classic Furniture.

To make a lengthy story much shorter, Todd's been extremely helpful as we've worked toward furnishing the WCTU Reading Room at Bank Street Brewhouse, and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for it.

"Those who say it cannot be done shouldn't interrupt the people doing it."

(See photos in this separate post)

As I've noted in the past, one obvious flaw with the blogger.com scheme is the absence of search capability for comments. Think of the many rewarding comment threads over the years, and ask yourself: How do I locate them again?

In reality, you don't easily do so, unless you can remember the original topic and search for the marquee posting.

This is why I'm elevating Lincoln Crum's Saturday afternoon comment to the marquee. At 565 words, and almost none of them "big", it's longer than many marquee blog posts here, and offers an alternative viewpoint of downtown.

Let the discussion continue. Thanks to Lincoln Crum for engaging in the spirit of the dialectic at NAC.

--

Lincoln has left a new comment on your post ""And it was all yellow."":

I usually refrain from commenting on any posts here at NA Confidential, actually I don't even like reading them because I usually don't agree with bluegill or Roger Baylor, but, I do need to provide a couple of points of clarification.

1. I am bluegill's brother-in-law and we've been good friends for a very long time. While I disagree with his point of view and approach on this matter I do respect him as an intellectual.

2. As far as Roger Baylor goes, I haven't spoken to him since he stole my seat at last years Barack Obama visit without any acknowledgment of my presence whatsoever. I refrain from drinking NABC beer, although I did do a recent Local Shoutout at the Public House this past week as a show of support for locally owned businesses. I think Roger is probably a little too big for his britches and works way too hard at using big words in his blog and writings that no one really gives a shit about.

3. I'm personal lifelong friends with Todd Coleman and an avid supporter of his business and entrepreneurship efforts.

4. I've had successful businesses in my 20 year career as an entrepreneur and I've had just as many failures.

5. If I've learned anything it's that criticism is cheap and overused in our local communities. Especially those with negative undertones.

6. I owned the building in question and sold it to Todd Coleman in the late 90's. I painted the bottom half of the building a light cream color. I never once had anyone complain about the paint, color, or process, especially as it stood next to a historic building that had been resurfaced with a stucco product.

7. I have a bumper sticker on my truck that says "Those who say it cannot be done shouldn't interrupt the people doing it." I think this applies here with Todd Coleman and the buildings that he's purchased and operated out of for the past 10 years.

If you have been following the progression of downtown New Albany for any time you already know that it was a ghost town only 10-15 years ago. This is when Todd Coleman decided to get involved and operate his businesses in the heart of New Albany. He believed in it when very few others did, he did more than open a business and pay rent to a landlord, he invested, borrowed and built his business all the while investing in real estate and contributing to the economic vitality of downtown.

Now, after he's done this and we have new businesses establishing you guys want to bash the hell out of him. Come on fellas. Put your money where your mouth is and post on this blog the commercial real estate properties that you own, the improvements that you've made to your commercial real estate investments and how you've built your business based on building and property ownership...once you do that than maybe your argument will have a little more validity.

8. Last and certainly not least, I'll remain a good brother in law to Jeff Gillenwater (bluegill), a good customer of Todd Coleman's Classic Furniture and Sleepworld and will continue my boycott of anything Roger Baylor.

Lincoln Crum

Posted by Lincoln to NA Confidential at 4:45 PM

Photo essay: An historic downtown property, and its stewardship.

All photos except the second (yellow) are from the summer of 2008. I couldn't find the photo showing the fallen bricks in the alley behind the building, although they're probably still there.

"And it was all yellow."

There oughta be a law.

Great news: White House Center sold to group headed by John Waggoner, and refurbishing under way.

In Saturday's Tribune:

Develop New Albany sells White House Centre

Develop New Albany has sold the White House Centre, located at 222 Pearl St., after owning the building for 13 years.

In a news release, organization officials confirmed the sale of the Centre to New Albany White House LLC, which is co-owned by John Waggoner — president of Hornblower Marine Services.

Waggoner led the restoration of the Reibel House, located at 115 Market St., where Hornblower is now located. He was recognized by Develop New Albany and other organizations for his work with the Reibel House.

Full disclosure: I'm a board member of Develop New Albany, with a bit shy of two years service. Irrespective of your opinion about the organization -- and opinions are numerous -- I believe we can all agree that John Waggoner's purchase of the building is a wonderful occurrence.

Yes, it may have taken too many years to achieve, but here it is, and it's good, because his organization's stewardship of the Reibel House speaks for itself ... and we can't say that about every downtown building owner, can we?

(Photo credit: The New Albany-Floyd County Public Library's Indiana History Room online)