Joliet may balk at paying for repairs to Rich & Creamy stand

Even though the historic Rich & Creamy ice cream stand in Joliet, Ill., reportedly has a good business — including Route 66 travelers from all over the globe — the city manager is wary of the city paying for a new roof, said The Herald-News in Joliet.

The City of Joliet bought the aging building about 2001 as part of the Broadway Greenway project. The Rich & Creamy stand includes Route 66 signs around it and figures of the Blues Brothers on top of it, making it an attention-getting sight for travelers.

Apparently part of the problem is owners Bill Gulas and Richard Lodewegen owed $17,000 in back rent. At one point in May, the stand’s operators faced eviction.

But the Joliet newspaper reports the operators made a $6,000 down payment, and double payments on the rent should have the debt paid off by the end of the year, they say.

But city manager Thomas Thanas is balking at the city paying about $19,000 for a new roof on the stand.

“I think going forward we need to look at what the future is for this site,” Thanas told the council. […]

That comes as a surprise to Gulas, who thought the future of the business had been stabilized with the rent agreement with the city.

Gulas said part of the issue with the rent was that the owners believed they would have to pay for the roof ­­— a job that had been estimated at $19,000. Other building repairs were done by the business owners, who then skipped rent payments to cover the cost of the work, he said.

He acknowledged that income suffered when the recession hit. What was worse, Gulas said, was the maintenance work that closed the nearby Ruby Street bridge and detoured through traffic for months. But now that the rent issue is being resolved, Gulas expected the city would go ahead and put on a new roof.

As for the long-term future of the ice cream stand: “We have a 30-year lease that we signed,” he said.

It seems that the city manager, irked about the back rent, wants the stand’s operators out of that space.

The city also once considered demolishing the stand and building a new one not as close to the road, for safety reasons. But the Rich & Creamy was kept as-is because of its nostalgic charm for Route 66 travelers. And although customers often crowd close to the road when a line forms, the city acknowledges no problems from that have occurred.