City takes over collapsed building|[4/04/06]
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 4, 2006
By Amanda V. Hebert.
More than three weeks after the expiration of a deadline set by the city for the owners of the old Thomas Furniture building to begin work on the partially collapsed property, Vicksburg officials voted Monday to hire an engineer to create a plan to secure the structures.
“Our main goal is to make that block of Clay Street safe and open to the public,” said City Attorney Nancy Thomas.
The plan is to stabilize buildings at 707 and 709 Clay St. that were damaged in the Jan. 25 collapse and remove remnants of the former hardware and furniture store at 711 and 713 Clay St., which was being remodeled by new owners Preston and Mary Reuther when it toppled.
Clay, between Walnut and Washington streets, has been blocked by debris and the possibility of the collapse of adjacent buildings.
Thomas said the resolution gives the city authority to “enter, examine, repair or remove dangerous or insecure buildings that are a public hazard.”
The city hired Patrick Sparks, an engineer who specializes in historical properties, to draw up a plan of action. Thomas said Sparks is licensed in Mississippi and has been working on the Gulf Coast.
“That’s his specialty, historic buildings,” Thomas said.
She said the city will pay Sparks $17,500 for the job, which is expected to take about 30 days.
The Reuthers were not at the City Board meeting Monday. Mary Reuther, reached by phone following the meeting, said she had no comment.
Mayor Laurence Leyens said Preston Reuther “has a wide open door” to begin stabilizing the property any time, but the city is acting because Reuther has not responded to phone calls and letters from city officials regarding the building.
“Under the light of public safety and opening the thoroughfare, we’re going to take action,” Leyens said. He has said the city will take the Reuthers to court to recoup public expenses if they don’t move to begin work themselves.
Reuther said three weeks ago that his contractors, C.G. Ford and Pete Buford, both of Vicksburg, were unable to get the insurance required to begin work on the property by the March 11 cutoff.
“We tried to do whatever we could do” to get the necessary paperwork, said Reuther, who along with his wife have bought 12 other properties in Vicksburg since moving from New Orleans in 2001, mostly historic buildings the couple has renovated to turn into rental properties. He has also said that a lawsuit could be forthcoming, but has not elaborated on the nature of a potential suit, who might be named as defendants, or his plans relating to the collapsed property.
The Reuthers, along with their original contractor, Freddie Parson, are facing a lawsuit from Larry and Linda Walker, owners of Adolph Rose Antiques, located in the ground floor of the building just east of the collapsed structures. The Adolph Rose building, owned by Malcolm Allred, who also lived in a third floor apartment there, sustained a hole in its west wall that remains under reconstruction. The Walkers are asking for more than $129,000 in damaged property, lost profit and punitive damages, plus court costs.
Reuther said he hired Buford and Ford after firing Parson on Feb. 27 for taking too long to begin work after the city approved Parson’s plan to secure the property on Feb. 21. Parson said he was delayed by the city’s requirement for insurance, which he applied for on Feb. 17 and received Feb. 24, three days before he was removed from the job.
Twenty-three workers hired by Parson for the original cleaning escaped the building, then slated to become an antique shopping mall, without injuries before the midday collapse.
The offices of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, Vicksburg Main Street and Vicksburg-Warren Alliance, which occupied the building directly west of the collapsed property, were evacuated on Feb. 15 and will remain vacant until the property is stabilized.