PINE BLUFF -- The fate of a Main Street building that partially collapsed in July once again rests in the hands of the Pine Bluff City Council after its Development and Planning Committee voted Tuesday to take up the issue of condemning the structure at a meeting next Tuesday.
A section of the roof of the building at 620 S. Main St. gave way July 25, toppling part of the south-side wall and leaving a mound of bricks in a nearby alleyway. The former Shriners' building, owned by Garland Trice of Pine Bluff, is more than 100 years old and is among several in the city that are in a state of advanced decay.
On Jan. 29, the former Band Museum building on Main Street suffered a complete roof collapse, and two buildings on either side are potentially unstable as well, according to the city's Inspection and Zoning Department. All of the buildings are vacant.
Trice said he is considering taking the city to court if the City Council votes to condemn his property, adding that he feels targeted.
"The appeal committee had a duty to do something other than criticize me for what I have failed to do," Trice said. "They said my building is crumbling, and it is not. They said there are large cracks, but there are not."
The city's Inspection and Zoning Department recommended that Trice's building be condemned late last year, but the City Council voted in favor of giving him more time to shore up the structure and file an appeal.
City officials later deemed a renovation proposal that Trice submitted for his building unacceptable, and he lost a recent appeal before the Pine Bluff Code Enforcement Board of Adjustments and Appeals, which recommended the structure be condemned.
In the meantime, city officials said they have given Trice ample time but that he has shown no progress.
Trice said he hasn't begun work on his building -- which he hopes to restore -- out of fear that the city will condemn it during renovation efforts.
Mitzi Ruth, chief inspector for the city's Inspection and Zoning Department, said Tuesday that Trice's fears were unfounded.
"No one told you that you could not remove bricks or do work at your building," Ruth said.
Pine Bluff Alderman Charles Boyd, who chairs the City Council's Development and Planning Committee, told Trice that he should have been "making some effort at your building to show you were committed to the project."
Boyd added: "It was my impression that you were going to start working on it, but that has not happened. Nothing has been done there, and we have a big problem with part of Main Street being blocked off. It's time for something to be done."
The southbound lanes of Main Street between Sixth and Eighth avenues have been blocked since the building partially collapsed, creating traffic concerns and affecting businesses in the area.
Trice left Tuesday's meeting early after announcing he had an emergency to tend to in Stuttgart.
Shortly before, Frank Washington, chairman of the Pine Bluff Code Enforcement Board of Adjustments and Appeals and a local contractor, disputed Trice's claims that his building can be restored.
"If you look at the bricks, they are the old-style bricks with mortar that crumbles easily over time," Washington said. "There are also cracks in the building as well. It's unsafe."
Washington's assessment is shared by Pine Bluff architect Dave Sadler, who has said previously that saving the building would be next to impossible.
"It was built with subpar brick mortar, and you can see from the bricks that have fallen just how brittle they are," Sadler said in an interview. "Some downtown buildings were not built with quality in mind, and if you don't shore them up properly, they just won't survive over time."
State Desk on 02/11/2015