C ity officials said cleanup from the five-alarm fire that destroyed four buildings and five businesses on Market Street East is no further along 100 days later than the day after the fire. Containing the fire and preventing smoldering resulted in debris from the four buildings becoming one big pile measuring 16-feet high in places and containing asbestos. A property cleanup coordination See Fire, Page 4A ^ meeting was held Thursday which resulted in property owners being given 60 days to file the required cleanup applications.

Planning and Codes Building Inspector Jill Smith and Public Works Director Jack Williams took the lead after City Administrator Kevin Owens called the meeting to order and introduced city officials to property owners Jacky Eakes, Brittany Holcomb and Camile Raby. Randall Harrison, asbestos coordinator with the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation, was unable to attend the meeting as previously scheduled.

Discussion was twofold. “The first portion is going to be talking about what we want to see with the cleanup process,” said Smith. “The second part is the asbestos removal.”

Williams began by saying he wanted to dispel “a few of the things that have been put out in the atmosphere. There are some pretty harsh things being said and we, as a City, don’t appreciate it.” One rumor was that the City wanted the property for the entertainment district. He said the City doesn’t have an approved entertainment district and “we haven’t taken over or accepted any of this property.” Williams said the Board of Mayor and Aldermen did agree to establish an ad hoc committee after one of the property owners indicated donating his lots. “But that’s as far as discussions have gone.” Another rumor Williams talked about was that Lincoln County Sheriff Tull Malone had raised $100,000 for the cleanup. “He hasn’t raised any money toward this. He hasn’t tried to and he hasn’t volunteered to get his trustees in that pit and clean up the stuff.” Williams said the sheriff’s offer was assisting cleanup of the sidewalk.

“We’re not much further along than we were right after (the fire) happened,” Williams said. “The only progress that’s been made is the Senior Lopez building. They removed the parapet walls and secured the remaining portion with TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) roofing material. We still have another portion of the wall that needs to come down. So before any cleanup can continue, the remaining wall that’s attached to the Monks building will need to be removed for people to safely get in the area.” (TPO is a single-ply roofing membrane usually used on a flat roof.)

Smith told the property owners the demolition fee will be waived but the “City will still require an application be filled out including a detailed scope of the work. Normally, the contractor who does the work fills out the application. I don’t know how y’all are going to get the debris removed. Are you working separately or together?”

After some back and forth discussion between property owners as to whether they were individually doing cleanup or as a group, Owens suggested obtaining a neutral mediator. It was determined a mediator wasn’t necessary and the property owners would meet in private following the meeting.

According to Smith, within the next 60 days property owners need to get the permit application filled out and be ready to start removing the debris. She said a 10-day notice is to be given to the City before removal of the asbestos begins. The asbestos has to be abated before the rest of the debris can be removed.

Removal will require the coordination of public works, the fire department, Fayetteville Public Utilities, traffic control and notifying the other business owners since “the entire block needs to be closed.” Williams said the necessity to close the businesses “gets into their pockets.”

Smith said once the debris is removed, property owners with basements need to decide if the basement areas will be filled in. The property owners then “have to fence off your lots for public safety.” She asked the owners to notify the City if they plan to sell or rebuild, “So, we can make plans on how we are going to address fixing our sidewalks.”

Williams said once the debris is removed public works will come in and reinforce the sidewalk. He said underneath the sidewalk is deteriorating because “your buildings were basically holding up our sidewalks. So now the buildings are gone, the field under our sidewalks has been compromised.”

Asbestos removal will include the wet method using a grid-system. Property owner Jacky Eakes had an asbestos abatement work plan compiled by an environmental, health and safety solutions company in Madison, Alabama. Williams said Harrison “has no problem with the grid system that we’re talking about. We’ll have to have an accredited asbestos person onsite to watch the debris removal as it goes out.” He said Harrison “wants all debris removal” done using the wet method.

Williams said the accredited asbestos inspector will have to be satisfied that everything is done correctly. “They’re the ones we have to satisfy,” he said. “It’s not me; it’s not you; it’s not the insurance guys.”