By Emily Enfinger | The Selma Times-Journal

Dave’s Market is opening a location in Thomaston in a unique location. The new market will be located inside the Marengo County High School gymnasium, which has been unused since the school closed in the late 1970s.

Dave Oliver, owner of Dave’s Market, said the Thomaston city council and the Marengo County Economic Development Authority (Marengo EDA) approached him two years ago about the possibility about opening a store in Thomaston.

Executive director of Marengo EDA Brenda Tuck said Thomaston has been looking for a grocery store for several decades, somewhere around 25-30 years. She said with Thomaston being a small town with a population of 400 people, it made it difficult to find a store willing to open a location in that area.

The closest grocery store would be in Linden, which is about 11 miles away.

“We knew they weren’t going to get a chain. It’s an unproven market; it’s a small realty,” Tuck said. “ It would have to be somebody willing to take a risk with the town.”

Tuck said she knew Oliver previously, knew he was a capable person and believed he would be a good fit. Tucker worked in Selma for numerous years as a partner with Alford & Associates, LLC, and with Pioneer Electric Cooperative.

With the help of Tuck and Thomaston Mayor Jeff Laduron, Oliver looked at several city owned locations before making a decision. He said he chose the 10,300 square-foot, old high school gym for the location because of the existing walls.

“We decided to go with the gym because the outer walls were already there so all we had to do was remodel the existing building,” Oliver said.

Dave said the Thomaston community has been very helpful, doing everything they can to help make the much-needed grocery store a reality.

“Everybody is excited and doing anything they can to help us,” Oliver said.

Parts of the gym have been refurbished and kept in the grocery store, including the original school colors, green and white.

“We left the goals and all up, the floor is painted just like the gym was,” Oliver said. “Everything else looks just as it did when it was an actual gym.”

Oliver said the only main exception is that the wooden planks were removed to have a concrete floor.

Laduron said it means a lot to people who once attended school there that the building is being saved.

“They’re just tickled to see that building being restored,” Laduron said. “Honestly at one point, I thought we were going to have to tear it down because it was an eye sore … but it’s completely different now. It’s amazing.”

Laduron said the main building was built in 1903 while the gym and lunchroom were built in the early to mid 40s.

The store has been under renovation for about five months but is expected to open for operation in mid February. The grand opening for the Thomaston’s Dave Market will be late February.

“Everybody is excited about the grocery store. It’s the talk of the town; it’s the talk of the state from what I’m hearing,” Laduron said.

The lunchroom of the old high school has been renovated and is being subleased out for R&D Family Restaurant, owned and operated by Oliver and Rick Perkins. Plans are being discussed for the main academic building, but nothing has been finalized yet.