Tom and Melody Fucik have reported the sale of the historical Iola Mills and the Millstone restaurant on Tuesday, May 3.
This post appeared on The Millstone of Iola Facebook page.
After a few ‘covid interrupted’ years, we have finally found investors who will take over the Mill property beginning in November.
Yesterday Melody and I signed documents outlining the sale and transitional terms with a closing date in November. This season we will still own and operate the Millstone as we bring the new owners up to speed.
The new owners are Ed and Angie Lemar, who live about 10 minutes north of the mill, and Angie’s older brother Dave and his wife Anni who reside in California. Ed, who is the music teacher at a charter school in the Tomorrow River school district and Angie, who is presently employed by the Stevens Point Recreational Department, will run the Millstone. Dave and Anni are environmental architects in California and will certainly lend their expertise to further development of the whole property.
Ed and Angie will help run the Millstone through the season to learn the operation as we have developed it. It is their intention to continue with everything we’ve built and expand from there.
It certainly is bittersweet to sell the mill property, but an inevitable necessity. It will be good for the property as aging issues have limited our progress. The property deserves new energy and further development.
We are proud of what we accomplished and the knowledge that the mill and its legacy wouldn’t have survived is of great comfort. We certainly will miss the customers but most importantly will miss working with all the great employees that helped us through the years.
Thank you for all your support for these many years and we hope to see you this summer…our farewell summer.
The new owners posted this on Facerbook on May 4:
Hello! This is Ed and Angie Lemar and we are excited to be the next generation of caretakers of Iola Mills. First of all we want to say that there will still be gelato!
Secondly, we are so grateful to Tom and Melody for giving us this opportunity to carry on such an amazing space
Here’s a little about us: We met at UW Stevens Point and have called Central Wisconsin our home ever since. We have been working with community events and organizations in the area over the past 20 years and are excited about this new venture. Ed is a teacher in the Tomorrow River School District and Angie works with the Stevens Point Parks. Angie is the 11th of 17 siblings and we have two daughters.
We plan to make The Millstone of Iola Mills a big family endeavor. We will be working closely with Tom and Melody as we transition to taking on the management while continuing their vision. We hope to create a space that acts as a community resource, honors the mill’s history, and provides a beautiful event space entirely run on renewable energy! We are also excited to start sourcing more food from our local farmers. We look forward to letting Tom run us through the mill this summer!
Come and say hi this Saturday.
Ed, Angie, Addelaide, Calliope, & Family