In other business Monday night, the City Council:
• Approved a three-year motopark operating agreement with H.A.M. Enterprises LLC. The group (made up local residents who also helped organize the first-ever motocross event last September) wishes to lease an area of the Great Bend Expo Area to operate and manage a motocross park, said city Human Resource Director Terry Hoff.
• Approved a motion to authorizing Mayor Mike Allison to sign an engineering agreement with engineering consultants Burns and McDonnell of Kansas City for engineering services for airport emergency lighting improvements to Runway 11-29. This $46,000 agreement allows processing of an approved FAA grant, Airport Manager Martin Miller said.
The total cost of the project is $374,147, of which the federal grant covers 90 percent. The city’s share would be $41,572.
As it is, Miller said, the lighting for this particular runway is 30 years old. It is not lit and closed to nighttime landings.
• Approved participating in the Federal Fund Exchange Program. The city has participated in this program in the past which allows the city to exchange federal funds for state funds which do not have all of the restrictions that come with using federal money. The exchange is a reduction of 10 percent of the total funds available. The total amount is $188,197.53 so the city would receive $169,377.77, City Engineer Robert Winiecke said.
This marks the third year the city has taken part in the program and Winiecke said it has worked well in the past.
• Approved a request from Jessica Foster of the Family Crisis Center for the closure of Main Street from Lakin Avenue to Forest Avenue from 5-8 p.m. May 1 for the Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event. The activity has grown, causing the need for the closure.
• Heard a report from Community Coordinator Christina Hayes. She discussed the Great Bend High School Community Service Day April 23, and the city’s participation in it (350 kids will be on city property), the No Sales Tax Sale April 12, upcoming baseball tournaments in April and May, and June Jaunt set for the first weekend in June.
• Approved abatement at 1438 20th, owned by Marcellus and Patricia Schwartz, for a motor vehicle nuisance.
After large chucks of brick and mortar tumbled off the back of the old opera house building at 2103 Forest late last year, a time line for either the preservation or demolition of the historic structure has officially been set.
The Great Bend City Council made the determination during its Monday night meeting. According to the approved resolution, the owners have until April 21 to hire a contractor to stabilize the damage and until Aug. 21 to have the work finished or raze the building.
“They want to repair the building and they want to preserve the building,” said Jerry Driscoll, a Russell attorney representing owners David and Barbara Pitcock of Hays. “They don’t want to leave a hole downtown.”
He assured the Council that his clients intended to follow the approved schedule.
City Attorney Bob Suelter said city officials had recently received a report from a structural engineer who studied the building. “It verified what we already knew.”
The opera house is a dangerous structure. And Suelter said the missing bricks need to be replaced and the southwest corner needs to be shored up through the use of metal work.
The most recent collapse occurred early in the morning on Dec. 18 when part of the southwest corner crashed to the ground. Later in the day, it declared the structure unsafe to occupy, forcing the renters, Euphoria Dance Studio and an apartment tenant, to move.
The fallen bricks and debris from the building’s south second- and third-floor wall also closed the parking lot behind the building, which belongs to the nearby First United Methodist Church. A gaping hole exposing the interior of the third and top floor has since been patched with cinder blocks.
At the Feb. 4 Council meeting, Great Bend Building Inspector Lee Schneider said he had prepared the paperwork to find the building “an unsafe and dangerous structure.” Schneider said at the time he has been in contact with the owners, but had difficult time reaching them, and the only communications he’s had come via text messages.
In one of these texts, the Pitcocks indicated they had hired an engineering consultant to study the building.
Schneider was also in touch with this consultant. These are the engineers whose report was considered Monday night.
“It’s going to be expensive to repair it,” Schneider said on Feb. 4. “Taking it down is also going to be expensive” since the building is attached to four other properties. “It’s not an easy fix.”
The issue dates back nearly two years. The city sent its first complaint letter to the owners in March 2012 after receiving an engineer’s report from MKEC Engineering Consultants of Wichita based on a November 2011 inspection.
Schneider said he received the report because the owners would not respond to the MKEC’s concerns about “structural deficiencies” in the building. MKEC attempted to contact the owners via mail and phone.
A second complaint was sent on Oct. 25, 2013, after more bricks had fallen. Attempts to reach the Pitcocks were again unsuccessful, Schneider said.
On Oct. 31, 2013, the city received a letter from David Pitcock.
In the letter, Pitcock said he is considering legal action.
Dating back to the 1880s, the building originally served as an opera house, said Bev Komarek of the Barton County Historical Society. Over the decades, it has also housed numerous businesses and offices.
The society has campaigned to save the building in the past.
