Hot Springs awards bid in Majestic fire cleanup

HOT SPRINGS — The Hot Springs Board of Directors set in motion Tuesday the cleanup of the rubble from the Majestic Hotel fire, a little more than six weeks shy of the two-year anniversary of the blaze that destroyed the oldest building in the complex in February 2014.

The board, with the exception of District 2 City Director Elaine Jones, who was absent, voted unanimously in a specially called meeting Tuesday to award the contract to Spirtas Wrecking Co. of St. Louis.

The city purchased the Majestic Hotel property in August after repeated attempts failed to have the previous property owner, Park Residences Development LLC, clean it up.

The base bid for cleanup of the “yellow brick” building was $348,884, but a $60,000 credit allowed for 200 loads of “clean” debris the city will haul away brought the final bid price down to $288,884. The bid includes a cost of $6,000 to salvage the remaining standing front wall bricks.

Interim City Manager Bill Burrough said the cost of the cleanup will be paid from the city’s general fund.

Randy Atkinson, Sanitation Department director, said the city will haul about 200 loads of rubble that is not contaminated with asbestos or other material to a location within the city limits.

“We have a resident who has a ravine that he wants to fill in, like he’s done in the past,” Atkinson said. “He’s trying to get some land back. We had him sign off on it, and that’s where we’ll take it.”

Atkinson said the resident is not charging the city for dumping the debris as it is “beneficial fill.”

“He called City Hall and volunteered the location for any fill we could bring him,” Atkinson said. “It has to be good, clean concrete or brick and can’t have any contamination whatsoever. As long as it is clean, we’ll take it there and dump it.”

Atkinson said the city told Spirtas that the city would haul at least 200 loads of debris using two trucks and 10 roll-off containers.

“If everything works in a perfect world, we’ll do 20 loads a day and knock this out in 10 days, but it could go as long as 20 days with just 10 loads a day,” Atkinson said. “The contractor said there is at least 200 loads of clean fill, but that is still an unknown.”

After the Jan. 4 deadline to receive proposals for the cleanup of the “yellow brick” rubble, which has been piled along Park Avenue since the building burned Feb. 27, 2014, city officials rated the seven companies that responded to the request for proposals.

Spirtas Wrecking Co. was the highest-rated firm and the low bidder.

Spirtas will partner with Midwest Services Group, a multiregional asbestos abatement contractor, for the project. The company has a twoweek mobilization period in which to move the necessary equipment to Hot Springs and plans to complete the cleanup in four weeks, according to its bid documents.