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.
 |
| One of the two generators. |
“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...”
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.
