City mobilizes after boiler fails at Aristocrat
An inoperable boiler at the Aristocrat Manor Apartments caused the city to consider evacuating tenants Wednesday as temperatures approached the freezing point.
Hot Springs City Manager Bill Burrough said a plan was in place to evacuate the roughly 100 residents who live at the 240 Central Ave. high rise to the warmer climes of the Arkansas Career Training Institute’s Reserve Street campus.
Burrough said the issue was first brought to the city’s attention when The Sentinel-Record relayed a complaint it had received from a tenant. The building houses elderly and disabled residents who receive federal rent subsidies as part of the property’s inclusion in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 program.
Three city buses were at the ready, and the city’s emergency operations center
was activated. The Red Cross and Arkansas Department of Emergency Management were notified and LifeNet was on standby. But at about 5 p.m. Burrough suspended the evacuation plan. Secondary heat sources not connected to the boiler were generating enough heat to warm the building, he said, noting that temperatures inside the building were in the mid-50s Wednesday afternoon.
Space heaters were also provided to residents, Hot Springs Chief Building Official Mike Scott said Thursday. He said the expansion tank a contractor was installing Thursday was expected to get the boiler running. An invoice building managers provided the city showed contractors identified the problem Oct. 15.
Scott said parts are not readily available for the boiler because of its age. They have to be built, which can take weeks or months in some instances.
A similar issue occurred with the building’s antiquated chiller in May 2018, coming to a head when the city threatened to declare the building unsafe and have it evacuated when owner Marshall Coffman refused to move a mobile chiller from the front of the building.
He said the owner of the adjacent parking lot quoted him an unreasonable price to park the portable chiller the city had ordered after the building’s unit had failed. He had the mobile unit and its 50-foot trailer moved to the front of the building, where the city said it obstructed motorists’ view of a nearby crosswalk and created a nuisance. Coffman ultimately acceded to the city’s request. It took about two months to find and install a refurbished chiller.
Coffman pleaded no contest last month in Hot Springs District Court to 34 violations of the city’s property maintenance code the city found when it inspected the Aristocrat in April. That same month HUD informed Coffman the Aristocrat was in violation of the 2000 agreement entitling the property to Housing Assistance Payments of more than $60,000 a month.
The agreement expires at the end of January, the deadline HUD gave Coffman to remedy maintenance issues or face the prospect of a third party manager being brought in to oversee the property. HUD said last month progress was being made on the litany of maintenance issues its inspectors identified in January and May.
The agency said it planned to renew the subsidy agreement, which Coffman representatives have said is needed to secure a loan for the property’s renovation.
HUD said Thursday the Aristocrat’s on-site manager stayed at the property Wednesday night to check on residents.
Burrough was pleased an evacuation was avoided and impressed by how quickly multiple agencies and governmental units mobilized.
“It’s times like this that you know you’re blessed with capable staff and capable community partners that can step in and take care of something like this,” he said.