El Dorado drops plan to use old Reserve site

— El Dorado city officials have decided to withdraw from a proposal for the city to take over the former site of the Rufus N. Garrett Jr. U.S. Army Reserve Center.

Mayor Frank Hash said various other people, including Union County officials, have looked at the facility and tried to come up with ideas to use it, but their efforts have been unsuccessful.

In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the Reserve center was to close as part of its Base Realignment and Closure plan.

The Army vacated the facility and moved into a new Reserve center built upon the recommendation of the Defense Department and opened earlier this year on U.S. 167-B, just east of Arkansas 7.

The Garrett property was going to be deeded to the city after the Army vacated it, and as part of the proposed deal, the city had to submit a redevelopment and reuse plan to the Defense Department.

Three years after the closure announcement, the El Dorado City Council approved a plan submitted by the Liberty Baptist Association, which had intended to move the services of its Liberty Ministry Center to the Garrett building.

But Hash said that the Ministry Center not been able to meet guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding church activities on government-owned property.

“They put a stop to it,” Hash said.

He said he had even asked Union County Judge Mike Loftin and Jerry Thomas, Union County emergency manager,to see if they could come up with a reuse plan for the building, possibly for an emergency function.

Hash said that it’s expensive to heat and cool such a large facility, which comprises two structures that sit on 1.5 acres and total 19,455 square feet.

“It will be put up for public sale,” Hash said.

The mayor also said that the city may soon inherit the old Warner Brown medical building after the 15-year lease with Area Health Education Center-South Arkansas expires in 2013.

Arkansas, Pages 18 on 11/24/2012

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