By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The closure of streets surrounding the Landmark Building during the windstorm last week prompted city council member Jade Piros de Carvalho to ask city building official Izzy Rivera about the building at the council's meeting Tuesday.
"In the past, we have tried to make contact with the property owner," Rivera said. "There has been either very little or no communication, once again, with the city regarding that. I have discussed the case with Mr. Cantrell. He and I are trying to work something out as to what we can do to address the situation and see if we can try and make it safe so that this doesn't happen again."
Cantrell went farther in his comments to the council Tuesday.
"Items, had they hit pedestrians, would have or could have killed people," Cantrell said. "That is a very serious issue. It's not really something that is isolated specifically to the Landmark. In our city, there's other buildings that are in bad enough shape that they, I'm sure, shed some of their parapet structures and some of their fenestration, as well. This really isn't the only building in town that we have in this condition, but it's probably the most, I guess, noticed building, based upon its location and its history."
Cantrell implied that the city is going to try to move the ball on this.
"We don't really have what I would call a heavily incentivized owner that has a desire to make those repairs," Cantrell said. "It would be a very expensive conversation for us to have, but I do think we're at the point where we need to understand that life and property are potentially being affected by this structure in our city. If we do get to an impasse where we do have to pony up the money for demolition costs, I think we need to take it seriously. I would anticipate that all of you would have that opinion. It's not that I'm petitioning you for adverse opinions in the past, but I think, even on a staff side, we were hopeful that we would get something accomplished, at least in the time that I've been here, that we'd get that building secured with new ownership and it just hasn't happened. I do think we'll be working with Izzy to get that building under notice and that we can see what happens with that, whether it be complete demolition, or maybe that incentivizes another strategy to sell that building or repurpose it."
The city is already involving itself in the demolition of the rooms at the Atrium Hotel next year, so if they chose to do something with the Landmark, too, that could have another significant impact on future city budgets.