HOT SPRINGS -- Civic leaders continued their public awareness campaign to get support for implementing measures to deal with an empty Arkansas Career Training Institute complex, secure its future and protect the integrity of Hot Springs National Park.
On Wednesday, the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce's Future of the Army Navy Hospital Committee addressed Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club members.
"This is where we need your help," committee member Clay Farrar told the Rotarians, who met at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts. "On your table we've handed out contact information for our senators and our congressman and how you email them, and quite frankly we've got to get their attention. We need their help and it's going to take a number of people in town sending an email so this rises to a level of priority."
He said the committee is asking for three things: a security fence to be installed around the complex by next year; security patrols consisting of three people guarding the complex; and a designated official in Washington to contact if a natural disaster affects the building.
Arkansas Rehabilitation Services announced in May that it was ending the institute's residential workforce training program for young adults with disabilities, and closed at the end of July.
The vacant facility -- near the downtown tourist district and Hot Springs National Park -- creates a large, empty complex that could pose public-safety risks of fire, vandalism, homeless occupancy, environmental issues and possible harm to the park's thermal springs, civic leaders have said.
Committee member Jack Porter said Wednesday that once he learned the private security used to protect the complex would be leaving along with the institute staff, he thought about the Majestic Hotel fire in 2014.
"I immediately thought about the fact that it took nearly 50% of the water that we have in Hot Springs to put that fire out, and I thought about the buildings that are very close to the national park," he said.
Committee member Mike White said that, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 20% of the water flowing into thermal springs is groundwater, and the complex sits within a groundwater recharge area.
"Now, if there is a fire up there, there's a lot of building materials that in and of themselves are not hazardous, but when you add fire and add all the water necessary to put that fire out, you've created a toxic stew that goes somewhere, and it's going to go downhill," he said.
"Most of it will probably fall into Reserve Street, but a sizable portion of it will flow down into Bathhouse Row and a portion of it will be absorbed into the groundwater. And those contaminants, once they're in the groundwater, they stay there for a long time. So there's a very real risk if we have a fire up there, it could contaminate the thermal springs for years."
After discussing the importance of preserving the complex, the committee members discussed the possibility of re-purposing the facility.
Metro on 10/31/2019