The hospital building and four-acres of land at the former Alexander Human Development Center (HDC), located in south Alexander along Highway 111, has been returned to the city. Also during the July 21 council meeting, a resolution was approved to apply for a grant to renovate the police department offices and establish a new firehouse.
Mayor Crystal Herrmann told council members it was time to do in reverse what was done nearly a year ago. In August, 2024 council members approved an ordinance giving ownership of the hospital building and surrounding grounds to the Central Arkansas Planning and Development District (CAPDD).
“We have a lot going on with the Brownfield grant,” Herrmann said. “It's actually, it's actually at the stage where CAPDD is needing to pass it back to the city so we can go through our testing under the city's name to be able to get our application in, in November.”
At a special meeting held Thursday, August 22, 2024 council members approved an ordinance and a resolution to correct an error made when the State deeded the HDC property to Alexander. Council members were told an environmental assessment study should have been done by the State of Arkansas, Development Disabilities Services Board, prior to deeding the 65.69-acre property to the city. If the assessment was done it couldn’t be found. Council members were also told a municipality can't qualify for grants to conduct an environmental assessment, but a state agency can.
So, the council decided to temporarily give up ownership of the hospital building in order to conduct the required environmental assessment needed to apply for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hazardous cleanup grant. As laid out in the ordinance and resolution passed in 2024, Alexander deeded four-acres of the property containing the hospital to CAPDD. Once the environmental impact studies, that weren't done originally, are completed CAPDD will return ownership of the four-acres to Alexander.
Herrmann has been attempting to acquire a Brownfield grant in order to make the HDC property safe for development. The grant program is funded by the EPA. According to the EPA website, "A brownfield is a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant." The expectation is the hospital building contains asbestos, lead paint and potentially other unknown hazards.
The HDC property, along Highway 111, was originally built as a tuberculosis sanitarium for African-Americans. Eventually it was converted into a home for adults with special needs that required care and training from professionals.
After losing a lawsuit the state turned over care of the patients to Pathfinders, Inc.. The organization operated homes for adults, with physical and mental health issues, in the southeast corner of the HDC property. They moved out when their lease expired in August, 2022.
When the Arkansas Department of Human Services no longer had a use for the property it was deeded to Alexander in 2018. Under state law the property could not be sold to an individual. It could only be taken over by another government entity such as a municipality or county.
At the July 21 meeting, the ordinance accepting ownership of the property was approved. In order to have the ordinance go into effect immediately, it required a two-thirds vote of the council to have only one public reading, instead of the required three. The seven council members present voted to suspend the required second and third readings. Six yes votes were needed to make two-thirds of the eight member council.
The resolution giving Herrmann permission to apply for a grant to renovate the police department offices and build a new firehouse didn’t go as smoothly. The grant request will also include the purchase of a back-up generator for the Community Center #2 building located on the HDC property.
Council member Juanita Wilson questioned the need for a new generator considering there is already one sitting at the rear of the building. There is also a second generator on a trailer.
“Ma'am, it doesn't
have a switch and that's a three-phase building,” Herrmann said.
“And this was some colossal 18-wheeler generator trailer that's not
even able to connect to it. And y'all approved for me to sell that
generator to go towards...”
One of the two generators.
Wilson chimed in, “There's
two generators still there.”
“It does not connect,”
Herrmann repeated.
“Well, the connection would be a
whole lot less than buying a generator,” Wilson responded.
“The
connection would be $25,000 to connect that unit,” Herrmann said.
The Alexander Police Department essentially completed its move from city hall to Cottage-A, at the former Human Development Center property, in March of 2023. While some renovation work was done to the building, including a new roof, more is needed.
According to Police Chief Timothy Preator the building has some serious ventilation issues. Besides being able to smell the “heroin, cocaine, meth, marijuana” evidence throughout the building; the air conditioning system isn’t able to maintain cool temperatures in the type of heat currently being experienced.
As for the fire department, the current fire house is located south of the intersection of South Alexander Road and East and West Azalea. The building was originally used by the Woodland Hills Fire District, a volunteer fire department. The building was not designed to accommodate the sleeping and eating facilities needed by a full time crew. Plus, the nearby creek has been undermining the fire house for years.
The proposal is to renovate Cottage-B for the fire department and build a three-bay structure next to the cottage.
“So we're looking at moving the firehouse over to the additional admin cottage next to the PD and then adding a new three-bay stall next to it for the fire trucks at the house and a renovation on the cottage itself and then improvements at the PD cottage,” Herrmann explained. “These buildings were built in 1950.”
The grant is funded by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The application process includes providing a cost estimate conducted by an architect.
“It did require an architectural firm to put the estimates together because it was over $100,000 in value,” Herrmann said. “Meanwhile, everybody's been under a tight crunch and we literally just now got the estimate back from the architect within the last hour,” (prior to the meeting). And we have not even had a moment to digest it, look at it, to even be able to discuss the line items.”
“The grant is due July 31st,” she continued. “It is an 80-20 grant and my ask to you for us to be able to apply for the grant. I have to have approval via this resolution.”
The city’s 20-percent portion of the funding will be divided between the police and fire departments. Herrmann said they have been budgeting for this type of expenditure but have not used those funds.
It was decided to allow for $200,000.00 as the city’s 20-percent of the grant. That allows for a one million dollar grant.
Six of the seven council members present voted “Yes” to adopt the resolution. Wilson voted “No.” The other six members present were Daniel L. Bates, Joy Gray, Angela Griffin, Joe Pollard, Christopher Prowse, and Mitchell W. Smith.