APO helps clean out Java Co

Once bustling with students, Kirksville residents and coffee shop-dwellers, a popular local hangout now is mostly empty.

After Washington Street Java Co closed its doors to business Jan. 4, Alpha Phi Omega, a National Service Fraternity, helped clean up the business Jan. 15.

Approximately 10 members from APO helped with the cleanup process, said junior Jessica Spencer, vice president. This included senior and former Java Co employee Julie Triplett. Spencer said the former owners, Steve and Jan Collins, asked the volunteers to help move out items they were taking from Java Co.

"I just asked [Triplett] if she would help me and she enlisted some other help," Jan Collins said. APO was able to help her pack some of their belongings and appliances and put them in storage.

The coffee shop was closed Jan. 4 by the city health department due to failure to comply with requirements from the Missouri Department of Revenue.  

The members were welcome to take a few items that were going to be left. Those items included tea, chairs, bar stools and paintings, which some students took to their dorm rooms, Spencer said.

APO has worked with Java Co before, said senior Liz Bledsoe, president of APO. She said  APO once helped Java Co with a large catering order for A.T. Still University.

Jan said whatever is left in the store will go to American Trust Bank.

"It was really like a family with customers and our employees," Jan Collins said. "It's the same building. Everything is there, but there's no personality. It's just not there. It's really sad to go in there right now."

Collins said she thinks there's a possibility of Java Co reopening in the future.

"Not by us, but hopefully by someone else," she said.

Collins said that currently a young man is interested in reopening the coffee shop. She said he is a Truman student, but did not disclose his name.