Mar 13, 2026 By Paul Paterra 3 min read

The City Mission Thrift Store in Monongahela is scheduled to close Saturday, but representatives of a city church hope the closure of the business at 211 W. Main St. is not permanent.

Representatives of Monongahela Heritage Church appeared Wednesday before City Council to discuss their plans.

Tobias Provan, who addressed City Council along with Steve Brosgol, said church members had been talking with the Monongahela Main Street Program to formulate a plan for the church to buy the store. Provan, who owns Zimmer Printing at 410 W. Main, was board president of the Main Street program at one time.

“We’re hoping to form a new nonprofit,” Provan said Thursday. “It’s probably going to be called Monongahela Community Thrift. We want to be able to offer people affordable things and work with the churches to make sure we have vouchers for people in need. From the Main Street program’s perspective, you need an anchor store in the downtown area. We don’t want an empty storefront sitting there. If you have a way of getting more foot traffic, that creates a symbiotic relationship with all of the businesses in the area.”

It was announced recently that the store would be closing Saturday, with finances cited by City Mission as the reason.

The store has been at the West Main Street location since July 2021. Proceeds from the thrift stores go toward keeping City Mission’s stores open and allow it to aid in providing meals, shelter, medical care and career training to those in need. Many donations go to the City Mission’s warehouse to provide residents the opportunity to learn job skills.

With the Monongahela closing and the closing of the Rostraver Township store in November, five City Mission Thrift Store locations remain – Washington, Canonsburg, North Strabane, Uniontown and Waynesburg.

Monongahela Heritage Church is located at 130 W. Main in the building that formerly housed St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which held its last service in December 2021 after opening as a parish in 1860. Monongahela Heritage Church began operations at the building in 2024.

Provan said discussions with City Mission representatives have taken place.

“We’ve been back and forth about pricing and think we’ve come up with a good price,” he said. “They seem to be interested in helping us acquire this. We’re doing fundraising and we’re hoping to take out a loan for the rest of the money.”

Melissa Marion, City Mission’s director of development, said the potential sale of the building is being explored.

“We are going to go through the process of selling that building,” she said. “Nothing has been decided for sure. Nothing has really changed on our end. We own the building and we will be looking to sell the building.”

Dorothea Pemberton, Monongahela’s director of communications and administration, said the city is in favor of having something operate in that building.

“It’s an anchor building in the community,” she said. “We are thrilled that the Heritage Church is considering opening another thrift store for us because that building is the center of town. It’s absolutely gorgeous and we want to make sure there is a tenant in there. …”It’s going to be a huge undertaking, but I’m pretty sure that Tobias and his group would be able to handle it. They love the community and want to make sure that we don’t have any empty storefronts.”