West Memphis council eyes 2017 for Neighborhood Center fix

West Memphis council eyes 2017 for Neighborhood Center fix

Budget work stirs talks of repairs, renovations for rundown property

news@theeveningtimes.com

Two years have slipped by since vandalism was first reported at the now shuttered Roberta Jackson Neighborhood Center in West Memphis. Councilmen James Pulliaum and Tracy Catt brought an update to City Council during the second November meeting.

The road to repairs has covered two full years and been very quiet. The condition of neighborhood center at 1300 Polk first came up as the city readied the building to be a polling place for the November 2016 election. City Treasurer Frank Martin then described the damage and said he found the building unlocked, commodes stopped up and windows cracked like spider webs.

“It stunk in there,” said Martin. “There were three doors open, unlocked.

Some doors had been kicked open. Half the electrical receptacles did not work, the thermostats were torn off the wall and the heating and the air did not work. Water was running in the back bathroom and it was stopped up.”

The unlocked doors pointed to a key control problem. Ruby Johnson with local NAACP said they had been locked out prior to the vandalism because of a key change and asked City Council for access to the office they had maintained in the building for 40 years. Plans were made to let the NAACP in for their next meeting a promise made to develop a standard use policy for the building consistent with other city meeting space.

Finally in June 2015 City Council unanimously ordered the Roberta Jackson Neighborhood Center closed after hearing again about the sad state of repairs and continued challenges with key control.

City Council looked at repair inspection for the building that went beyond vandalism and included foundation, roof work and insufficient HVAC capacity. Safety concerns were also included missing fire extinguishers and emergency lights. Health concerns were noted with clogged toilets.

“We’ve had a lot of problems, complaints and commotion at the neighborhood center, “said Mayor Johnson. “I’ve hand conversations with the city councilors in the ward. It needs a lot of work.”

City Councilors voted to close the building for health and safety reasons but vowed to designate a use for the building and have repairs done to follow the function of the building. City Councilor Melanie Hutchinson cast her vision for the future of the neighborhood center after the action.

“This is temporary; repairs will be made,” said Hutchinson. “Mayor Johnson has assured us that once the work is done we will get it right back open.

I’d like to see a program for the elderly in the morning and a suitable program for children. The Blackout Ryders and the NAACP are organizations in the community that come to the neighborhood center.”

As the City Council prepares the 2017 budget, Pulliaum and Catt gave and updated status at the last city council meeting.

“I am getting calls on the Roberta Jackson Neighborhood Center,” said Pulliaum. “Alderman Catt is still waiting on figures to come in. We are still working on some money.”

“We need a structural engineer to give us an assessment of the building and specs to rehab the work that needs to be done,” said Catt. “That may be different from the bid we received to actually raise the foundation. We want to make sure that the dollars we are spending are spent

as best as possible.”

By John Rech