Aristocrat residents sweat out dispute between owner, city
The Aristocrat Manor Apartments have been without air conditioning since last week, but the city and building owner are at loggerheads on where to locate a portable chiller that can keep the building cool until a new cooling system arrives.
In the middle of the dispute are 92 residents, all of whom building manager Susie Beck said are elderly or disabled.
The city wants to locate the unit at the private parking lot at 222 Central Ave, but building owner Skip Coffman said the cost is too high. He said vendors told him it could take as long as two months to build a new chiller for the property.
“It’s a really outrageous number,” Coffman said Friday of the cost to park the mobile unit and trailer. “It’s 10 times or more what they would charge a person to park a car. I feel like they’re trying to take advantage.”
Coffman said box fans for all 101 units arrived Wednesday, and that he may bring portable air conditioning units on site if an agreement on where to place the portable chiller can’t be reached.
City Manager David Frasher said Friday that the city ordered a mobile chiller and parked it in the private lot in the hope that Coffman will agree to connect it to the building. The Medical Arts Tower, which Coffman said he owns the second through 14 floors of, is between the parking lot and Aristocrat.
“We’re going to connect as much of it as we can without having the permission of the property owner,” Frasher said, explaining that the city thought it had an agreement earlier in
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the day with Coffman to put the chiller in the parking lot.
“The fire chief continues to monitor the temperatures. He’s prepared to make an unsafe building declaration if temperatures get too dangerously high. At that point, we would relocate the residents to the contingency center we’ve established” at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
Coffman said the city authorized him to park the chiller in front of the Aristocrat earlier this week but rescinded the authorization Wednesday afternoon. Beck said the trailer arrived that morning and was retrieved by the vendor Thursday night.
Frasher and Deputy City Manager Bill Burrough said the noise and exhaust it emitted created a nuisance, and its size obscured motorists’ view, they said, imperiling pedestrians using the nearby crosswalk.
“There’s no reason we couldn’t put it in front of the building and do that for a week and see if it causes any problems,” Coffman said, calling the city’s rationale for not allowing the unit in front of the building “arbitrary.” “If it does, we can move it to the parking lot.”
Frasher and Burrough said the initial authorization was given with the understanding a crane would be temporarily placed in front of the building while it lifted a portable cooling unit onto the roof.
“What was discussed and what showed up on site were different,” Frasher said. “It was a 56-foot trailer.”
The Hot Springs Fire Department and LifeNet evaluated residents Friday afternoon for heat-related illnesses. Frasher said the convention center would only be a temporary option, used for no more than a few days, for displaced residents should the building be declared unsafe.
“After that, we’d have to find something more long term,” he said. “If (Coffman) decides to change his mind, and connect the building to the cooler that’s what well do. It’s a fluid situation.”
Coffman said he’ll challenge the city’s authority to vacate the building.
“They can’t just arbitrarily do what they think they’re going to do,” he said. “If they do what they’re talking about, they’re going to have some problems. I’ve hired an attorney and a big law firm here in Little Rock.”
Patricia Campbell, U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Region 6 public affairs officer, said the building is a project-based Section 8 property. Residents pay 30 percent of the rent, and HUD pays the balance on all 101 units. Coffman’s Housing Assistance Payment contract requires him to provide “decent, safe and sanitary housing” and maintain it in accordance with local building codes.
“His responsibility is to provide, under his contract, decent, safe and sanitary living conditions,” she said. “How he does that is his responsibility, but we have been in contact since this whole situation was brought up. Our number one priority is the health and safety of the residents. (Where the chiller is placed) is between the owner and the city.”
Campbell said it was HUD’s understanding that the chiller would be operating by today.