Fort Scott Barber Shop Waits To Reopen Their Business

This photo is from the opening of Fort Scott Barber Shop in 2021. From front to back are Jaylisha Montanez, Giancarlo Montanez, and Jose Montanez, the three barbers in Fort Scott Barber Shop. Mayra Montez stands beside her husband, Jose. Jose Montanez Jr is in the barber seat.

 

Fort Scott Barber Shop at 118 E. Wall is owned and operated by the Montanez family. They were winners of multiple awards including Best Barbershop in the Midwest when they had their business in the Kansas City area.

They moved to Fort Scott in 2021 and started a new barber shop in the historic downtown district, across from the Fort Scott National Historic Site.

A dispute with the City of Fort Scott over the safety of the historic building closed the business almost a year ago, ownerJose Montanez said.

“I am not wanting to fight with the city,” Montanez said in an interview with fortscott.biz when contacted about the business being closed for almost a year. “I just want to open my business.”

It’s been over a month since the city took down the street barriers on Wall Street.

“A lot has been said at the city commission meetings, but when I ask to sit down and talk, nobody wants it,” he said.

The work on the facade of the building has been completed, which the city had some concerns with.

“It took some time to get a reputable business to take on the project,” Montanez said. “We had a structural engineer come in who certified it wasn’t a structural wall, just the facade of the building needed to be fixed.”

“So we proceeded to replace the bricks on the facade, and the city inspector came in to give final approval. For some reason, he was stripped of his power to give final approval on this specific project, unlike any other project,” Montanez said.

“Ever since then, we have been going back and forth. For some reason we haven’t been able to open our business back up, even though it’s fixed,” he said.”The street has been reopened, which tells us the city feels safe. If they felt it was a hazard to the community they wouldn’t have opened the street back up.”

“It’s sad for us. We see many businesses closing and we want to stay,” he said. “It’s been a heavy burden.”

“The City brought its own private engineer which could not write a report as requested from the City and ended up quitting after fully inspecting the inside and outside of the property and charged no fees due to his ‘inability’ to write a report,” Montanez said.

“We fixed the facade, at this point they want to do an inspection on the whole building,” Montanez said. “It’s been a month and a half since the barriers were taken down. A dumpster has been placed in front of the building to make it look like they are keeping the public safe.”

The family of three barbers have been working in other studios and salons to make ends meet, he said.

“We want to open up the building, we want to show we are wanting to stay,” he said.

The Fort Scott Barber Shop, 118 E. Wall. Submitted photo.

To view the story on the opening of the business:

Opening Soon: Fort Scott Barbershop, 118 E. Wall

5 thoughts on “Fort Scott Barber Shop Waits To Reopen Their Business”

  1. It’s a masonic building. “Possibly” other entities want that building. To say they do not would be very misleading.
    Glad you have it back

    1. Wasn’t that building for sale for quite awhile until the family bought it in 2021? Do you think there was someone who wanted it but didn’t purchase it back then?

  2. Fort Scott commissioners don’t care about small business or any business for that fact, they have allowed multiple companies to leave the community causing hardships for the people that worked at these companies. But yet don’t have a problem spending money that ridiculous sign on Wall Street west of Hwy 69. They barely used local companies for that sign, most was outsourced. I understand this happening everywhere, but seems like Fort Scott is fast tracking the demise of the economy for that area. They lost Valu Merchandisers, just recently Timken, soon Walgreens, not to mention the Hospital. But lets tax the residents more taxes to get a hospital to come back to Fort Scott.

  3. No. If you watch the city meeting with the owner, they are not the one dragging their feet. If you have a building, you have to maintain it! sorry but not sorry. Maybe get the story straight before posting something.

  4. I can’t understand why this is taking so long! This family has done everything they can to make their building safe. Their children are having to rent space at other salons/barber shops and the expense of the inspectors and the work done on the building have to be crazy. Please, in the spirit of the season and of doing what’s right, remove the dumpster, and let the barbershop reopen for business! This whole situation gives me a really bad feeling that we are mistreating these Fort Scott citizens who committed to this town, pay their taxes, and perform a very important service for our community. Whatever or whomever is delaying this reopening needs to do their job and move on – so the Montanez family can do the same!

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