Cave Springs Council to reconsider community building work

Cave Springs' City Council will discuss repairing the 81-year-old Community Building during its June 13 meeting. The council voted last June to spend $75,000 repairing the building.
Cave Springs' City Council will discuss repairing the 81-year-old Community Building during its June 13 meeting. The council voted last June to spend $75,000 repairing the building.

CAVE SPRINGS -- City leaders will soon decide if repair will start again on the Community Building, months after work stalled.

"It's going to be up to the council," said Mayor Travis Lee. "They started on it, and they stopped it."

Dissenting opinions

Architect Gary Clements said the Community Building needs minimal repair, but Mitch Erwin of JPM Inspection Services and R. Wayne Jones with McClellan Consulting Engineers inspected the building and noted multiple issues.

Erwin found the roof frame sagged and sagging joists and rafters put pressure on the exterior walls, causing the north walls to lean out 4 inches and south walls to lean in 3 inches.

Jones wrote in his report the floor sloped from the center to the north and to the south, indicating either foundation movement or structure support deterioration, and the concrete foundation had numerous cracks causing the building to settle and move over time. Damage to the exterior walls was caused by foundation movement.

Jones said the building was unsafe and recommended it be closed until repair is complete.

Source: Staff report

The City Council will discuss the 81-year-old building during its June 13 meeting, in which it will make budget cuts discussed during a recent work session. The council voted last June to spend $75,000 repairing the building.

"But our proposal at the next council meeting is to cut that to $35,000 and see what we can do for $35,000," said Alderman Larry Fletcher. "Personally, I don't think $35,000 will get near what we need to do for that building."

Fletcher said the city has somewhere between $125,000 and $130,000 in its general fund. The council has been trying to cut city expenses. Aldermen are especially worried since they recently learned the city never passed a millage resolution for 2017, instead submitting the resolution for 2016 to County Clerk Tena O'Brien. The city may lose property tax revenue because of the oversight, city attorney R. Justin Eichmann said during a meeting a few weeks ago.

Lee said repair is unlikely if the millage revenue is lost.

"I don't think we have the money then. It wouldn't be prudent for us to do the Community Building when we just lost $400,000," he said.

Fletcher said the repair is a priority.

"We made a promise to the citizens of Cave Springs that we were going to rehab and revitalize that building, and we haven't done it, and we need to do everything we can to bring it back," he said.

Repair began quickly following the vote to fund them last June. Gary Clements, an architect who runs the North Little Rock-based Clements & Associates Architecture Firm, made the repair recommendations. Inmates from the Benton County Detention Center were used as free labor. However, work came to a halt about a week later because of concerns the city couldn't afford the work.

The building closed in late 2015 when a contractor refused to install a projector because he considered it unsafe.

Clements, who in 2014 completed restoration on the interior of the House chamber dome in the state Capitol, inspected the building and said the only significant repair needed is a new heating and cooling system with duct work and handicap-accessibility modifications to the bathrooms.

Clements recommended the drainage trough on the east side be reworked to eliminate water and moisture damage, the roof be replaced, a stoop be built with steps at the south exterior door and handrails be installed on the front steps.

Fletcher said the building served many functions since it was built in 1936, including City Council meetings, weddings, receptions and family reunions.

It should be saved because of its rich history, said Robert Smittle, a resident who fought to have the building preserved. The building is a landmark that should be preserved, Smittle said.

"We may not be able to do anything for a while on it because of city finances, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need to be done," Smittle said. "We might just have to wait a while."

NW News on 05/29/2017

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