Breaking and entering, trespassing reported at former ACTI campus
While the majestic building that once housed the Army and Navy General Hospital, and more recently the Arkansas Career and Training Institute, currently sits vacant, fears about potential vandalism and trespassing have become a reality, according to a committee formed to secure the building and its campus.
Clay Farrar, who chairs the Committee on the Future of the Army and Navy Hospital on behalf of The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, said the committee’s “number one concern” since its creation in June 2019 has been that there would be a “homeless problem” at the vacant building that sits at 105
Reserve St. in downtown Hot Springs.
“Anybody who lives in Hot Springs knows, Hot Springs has a major homeless problem pretty much all through downtown and certainly up Broadway Avenue. So there’s been a concern that the homeless problem would move itself over to the Army and Navy Hospital,” Farrar said.
“Then our second concern would be if the vandals or homeless or whoever started breaking into the building, certainly the big building, that could just be a catastrophe — you know fires, and broken water pipes, and trash and God knows what,” he said.
“We have information from a credible source who prefers to keep his name out of it because he’s got an employment issue, that there is already, I was told, significant amounts of vandalism and broken windows and broken doors. Now whether it’s significant or minor, I don’t know because I’m not invited up there. But, if it’s minor vandalism, it’s going to go to major vandalism. If it’s started, it’s going to get worse.”
Chip McAfee, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services director of communications, said as far as it knows, there have only been “a few instances of people being on the property who are not supposed to be there.”
“There has been one door that was breached to the main building, which was secured once discovered,” McAfee said. “The National Park Service is providing surveillance and patrols around the property as well.”
All incidents involving the building are being reported to the National Park Service.
Park Service Law Enforcement Operation Supervisor Jeff Johnson confirmed there has been indication of breaking and entering, theft of toilet paper and cleaning supplies, and trespassers have been found on the property.
“I believe that the maintenance staff that worked there… have located some open doors and unlocked windows that indicated people have been squatting,” Johnson said.
“We now conduct security patrols … and have some surveillance cameras to keep any vandalism at a low and get anybody who shouldn’t be in there,” he said.
“We conduct daily patrols through the area,” Johnson said, “day and night, and if anyone is contacted trespassing on the property they can certainly be cited and arrested and charged federally for breaking and entering, and whatever the case may be. We certainly urge the general public to not enter.”
Arkansas Rehabilitation Services announced in May 2019 it was discontinuing the program on the campus known as the Arkansas Career Training Institute, and later the Arkansas Career Development Center.
The state of Arkansas vacated the building at the end of June 2020, beginning the process of the title to the 20-acre property reverting to the Department of the Army.
The Army deeded the property to the state in 1960 on the condition that it be used for health or education. Arkansas Rehabilitation Services used the campus for the state’s residential job training program for young adults with disabilities.
The deed conveying the property from the Army to the state in 1960, and the enabling 1959 Act of Congress, stipulated that the campus would immediately revert to the Army if the Secretary of the Army determined it was no longer being used for health or education.
The U.S. Department of the Interior has declined to take custody of the Army and Navy General Hospital, according to Preserve Arkansas, the nonprofit that has taken the lead on securing a caretaker for the orphaned property.
Farrar said the patrols currently being conducted by the Park Service are not sufficient. While the agency doesn’t want anything bad happening “next door,” it is not their “legal duty” to give “comprehensive security” to the building, he said.
“We have been in continuous contact with our congressional delegation alerting them of this concern from the beginning, from 18 months ago, saying ‘We’re going to need your help to get the federal government to realize that the federal government needs to come in and do at least minimal, it’s called caretaker status,’” Farrar said.
The committee he sits on has been searching for a use of the building, and in the meantime wants it taken care of, but the future of the building is uncertain with no owner.
“It was supposed to go back (to the federal government) on July 1, and the Department of Army has declined to take the deed, and the Department of Army has taken the position they do not want the property,” Farrar said. “The state of Arkansas has taken the position it is no longer theirs as of July 1, which is, as far as they’re concerned, they don’t own it either. … So right now what we have is a building in limbo.”