After collapses, PB takes stock of core
City inspecting downtown structures
PINE BLUFF — Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said she hopes a new round of downtown building inspections finds most of the buildings in the city’s core structurally sound and able to be restored.
The city’s fire marshal office is about halfway through the inspections, which were prompted after several aging downtown buildings partially collapsed recently.
“What we are dealing with is demolition through neglect,” Hollingsworth said. “For so many years, code enforcement wasn’t a priority for previous administrations, and some of our building owners have just not kept up with their properties the way they should.”
Once the inspections are complete, the findings will be presented to the city’s Planning and Zoning Department for a final review. If there are problems with a structure, Hollingsworth said, the owner will be notified and instructed to fix the problems. The next step will be imposing fines and, as a last resort, possibly condemning the building, Hollingsworth said.
“It’s a pretty drawn-out process over months, and we give building owners plenty of time to address problems,” the mayor said. “This is the first time we will really be testing our city’s enforcement of building codes. I am hoping that possible fines will be enough to motivate building owners to do the right thing.”
Brian Driscoll, technical assistance coordinator for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, said maintaining aging buildings is critical to their survival.
“You must address small problems before they become big problems,” Driscoll said. “They do not need to be reinforced with steel skeletons,
though additional reinforcement is sometimes used to address modern standards on such issues as seismic activity.”
Driscoll said many problems with older buildings begin with leaky roofs, as was the case in the most recent building collapses in Pine Bluff. The roof of the Mid-South Music store on Main Street partially collapsed two weeks ago, and next door, the collapses on Feb. 23 of the former Band Museum and a former VFW were attributed to roof issues.
The Band Museum and former VFW were vacant, but Mid-South owner Robert English was in his store when a large section of the building’s roof caved in on the third floor. There were no injuries.
English is relocating his store, saying he cannot afford the hefty price tag of a new roof.
Right now, two large sections of Main Street in downtown Pine Bluff in front of the partially collapsed buildings are blocked off by dozens of orange traffic barrels.
Main Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues is blocked to northbound and southbound traffic, and the southbound lanes are blocked between Sixth and Eighth avenues.
City officials are trying to work with the building owners to come up with a plan to clear the debris.
Talk of Pine Bluff’s downtown building problems has come up in at least two other Arkansas cities recently. In El Dorado, historic district commission leaders said they plan to closely monitor the condition of downtown buildings over the next few years, though there have been few problems reported in that city.
In Warren, Janelle Lipton, president of the Bradley County Historical Museum, said her community has several derelict structures that are in need of repair, and she worries that more could follow.
“Downtown is the heart of any city. It represents history, so it’s important to preserve,” Lipton said. “But it just boils down to money. There is never enough to keep up with all that needs doing. It’s a problem in most every small town.”