POTD: ‘More pop up all the time’

Metro Wire Staff

Two public works employees on Monday removed a large pile of personal belongings that have been accumulating on city property for several weeks.

The garbage crew came through the parking lot of the former Great Lakes Educational Loan Services call center, the city-owned 1101 Centerpoint Dr., shortly before 8 a.m. on Sept. 9. But items have been piling up in the area since mid-July.

The call center closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company left the student loan business in 2023.

“These piles pop up all the time; we get rid of one, then we find another one,” one of the city workers said on Monday.

Among the items the workers removed by hand on Sept. 9 were blankets, clothing, hygiene items, a gallon of what appeared to be urine, cooking items, and leftover food.

Great Lakes leased the building from the city for about a decade, but the building is now expected to become part of a superblock development in the wake of the former Shopko demolition.

The superblock plans essentially break up one large lot into small sections and include a lot of green space, with the former Great Lakes building as a possible future convention center.