Another historic Warren building might soon be in danger of being razed.
The topic of the Hankins-Ederington Building came up during a discussion at a Warren Sanitation Committee meeting Tuesday.
“We’ve got a serious problem,” said Mayor Gregg Reep. He said of the building which houses Lighthouse Church, the Sandwich Shop and the former Hankins Hardware store, “All three are structurally unsound.”
Top photo: Warren Sanitation Committee met Tuesday. Shown, from left, are Chairwoman Alderwoman Latanza Atkins, Sanitation Department Executive Secretary Kim Burkhart and Alderman Joel Tolefree. Photo by Tim Kessler.
That statement comes after some structural issues were detected. The state fire marshal examined the buildings and said all parts of it needed to be condemned. Reep called in architect Gary Clements of Clements and Associates of North Little Rock, who said all parts of the building were dangerous and added, “Something needs to be done now.”
City Attorney Murray Claycomb is currently drafting a letter giving the business owners 10 days to respond, urging them to abandon the building or give the city a plan on what should be done with it.
The Lighthouse Church portion is owned by Vernon Colvin II. Johnny Bradford owns the rest of the building.
The building was built in the early 1900s and formerly housed the Ederington Mercantile Co. and Wayne’s restaurant.
City Building Official Rob Johnson also said that he had examined the building.
New Ward 3, Position 2 Alderwoman Latanza Atkins chaired the meeting. Other committee members present were Alderman Joel Tolefree and Alderwoman Angela Marshall. Also present was Kim Burkhart, executive secretary to Johnson.
In other action:
- Johnson explained the Sanitation Department consists of seven employees, including three on residential pickups, one person on commercial pickups, two picking up limbs and dumpster trash, and one recycling manager.
He said the recycling center on U.S. 278-West has 72 bales of cardboard waiting on the price to go up before being sold. It generates about $5,000 to $40,000 in revenue for the city each year. A storage shed was added last year.
Johnson said interviews were held Tuesday for part-time and full-time CDL drivers. The department has looked at adding plastic recycling but determined it would be too labor-intensive. Newspaper and shredded paper recycling has been done in the past but there are no markets for such items at present.
- A community clean-up was discussed. Johnson said vests and trash bags are available in his department. Assistance will be sought from Bradley County government and Keep Arkansas Beautiful.
Reep said he is currently scheduling state inmates from Arkansas Department of Correction’s Dermott Unit to assist with litter pick-up. He said inmates from the Fordyce jail might also be used and he will discuss with District Judge Bruce Anderson about using offenders from his court to pick up trash in lieu of fines.
- Building inspections were discussed. Johnson said he does inspections on new construction, remodeling and any entity connected to the Warren water system.
“What the city has been doing is relying on complaints for clean-up,” Reep said. He said it first has to be determined that there is a problem, the property owner has to be identified and contacted, if nothing is done it can be referred to the City Council for condemnation, certified letters are sent to the owners giving them 30 days to clean up the problem, after that period the city can clean up the property or hire clean-up crews, the property owner is sent a bill and a lien is put on the property until the bill is paid, which means the owner cannot pay property taxes until the lien is satisfied.
Johnson noted the city currently holds about $200,000 worth of liens. “Your town isn’t going to be cleaned up going off complaints,” he said.
Reep said he was working on a systematic process to deal with unkempt properties. He proposed that a Community Development Committee be set up with citizens to make recommendations to the council.
Marshall said one such committee had been set up and met one time before the COVID pandemic hit. She suggested that the City Council could appoint two members from each ward and then committee members and council members could start going through the streets alphabetically to identify problems and work on solutions.
