PINE BLUFF -- The Pine Bluff City Council voted 5-3 Tuesday night in favor of condemning a Main Street building that partially collapsed in July.
A section of the roof of the building at 620 S. Main St. gave way July 25, toppling part of the south wall and leaving a mound of bricks in an 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 roof of the former Band Museum building on Main Street collapsed completely, and two buildings on either side are potentially unstable as well, according to the city's Inspection and Zoning Department. All the buildings are vacant.
Trice told aldermen before they voted on the measure to condemn his building that he felt he was treated unfairly by the city and that officials "judged me, rather than helped me."
Tuesday night's resolution gives Trice 30 days to tear down his structure or face a lien on the property. Trice was unavailable after the meeting for comment.
Traffic has been blocked from traveling the southbound lanes of Main Street between Sixth and Eighth avenues in front of Trice's building since July, and northbound lanes in front of the old Band Museum also are blocked. The Band Museum has been condemned, and the city is working with the owner to come up with a plan to demolish it. One of the other buildings beside it, a former VFW post, also is to be torn down, city officials have said.
The 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 didn't begin work on his building -- which he had hoped to restore -- out of fear that the city would condemn it during the renovation.
Aldermen Glen Brown Sr., George Stepps and Thelma Walker, who all voted against condemning Trice's building, said they wanted more time to research the matter before taking action.
State Desk on 02/18/2015