City selling once-vibrant North Omaha building, looking to offload more empty lots [Video]

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Ella Willis has many memories at the building off 24th and Manderson Streets.

“We had game nights. We had our tents set up, selling popcorn,” she said while flipping through a binder of photos.

The city-owned building was a social hall. It was used by the Neighborhood Action and Fact Association, where Willis has been the president for decades.

“We installed bricks around the neighborhood garden. Flowers and working in the garden over there,” she said.

Those same bricks are still here, but the vibrant community isn’t.

“Everything has changed,” said Willis.

Willis even had a key to the building at one point.

“We try to keep our neighborhood clean.”

In the 2010s they stopped using the building when she says the city started overseeing its use more.

“It’s easier to go elsewhere than go through all those ups and downs.”

The neighborhood association now meets at the local library.

After sitting vacant for years, the city planning department wants to sell it.

First Alert 6 asked …