PINE BLUFF -- The Pine Bluff City Council on Tuesday night approved a pilot program from the Arkansas Department of Community Correction that will put parolees and those soon to be paroled to work tearing down derelict houses around the city.
Dubbed the Pine Bluff Housing and Community Re-invigoration Program, the project is made possible through a collaborative $830,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Economic Development and Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.
Aldermen approved the measure in a 7-0 vote. Alderman Charles Boyd was absent from the meeting.
Alderman Steven Mays said before the vote that while he supports the program, he hopes to see a greater effort on the part of Pine Bluff residents to restore their neglected properties.
"When you look around our city, you see a lot of older properties that are in bad shape, but many could be saved," Mays said. "I just hate to see our past and a part of our history torn down before our eyes."
The three-year program is designed to provide up to 40 soon-to-be-paroled inmates a chance to learn job skills and help them be productive members of society, Kevin Murphy, assistant director of re-entry and volunteer services at the Community Correction Department, told aldermen at a public meeting held last month to discuss the project.
The inmates, who will all be from Jefferson County, will be accepted into the program in groups of 10 for six months at a time, he said.
The laborers will work primarily on the demolition of houses in the city, not other kinds of buildings, Murphy said. They will be housed at four highly supervised duplexes in Pine Bluff adjacent to the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center.
In addition, 10 parolees already living in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County will be paid to work as part of the program. Those housed at the Southeast Arkansas Community Correction Center will not receive payment for their labor.
According to the Pine Bluff Planning and Zoning Department, there are currently 600 homes scheduled for demolition. Pine Bluff leaders said the help from parolees will be vital because the city only has about $80,000 a year to spend on razing derelict structures.
Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said the city will work in tandem with the Community Correction Department's program.
"We won't be taking any work away from our local contractors," the mayor said. "There is plenty of demolition work to go around."
State Desk on 09/03/2014