Beckley Council members to tour building

Apr. 16—A member of the Beckley Historic Landmarks Commission said Thursday that he wants to save a Prince Street building from demolition, if possible, and to preserve the historic district of downtown Beckley.

"I hope that we can continue to see that the downtown historic district, or what is still there, remains safe from the wrecker ball," said Sam Interdonato, a retired Woodrow Wilson High School teacher and historian. "I am tired of more parking lots that they put meters on."

A fracas over 227 Prince St., an old medical lab that was built in 1936, started Tuesday night during the regular council meeting when Mayor Rob Rappold asked for a vote on a bid by Empire Salvage, of Bluefield, to demolish the structure at a cost of $62,000.

Councilman Tom Sopher, Ward I, opposed the move. Ward III Councilman Robert Dunlap, an attorney and developer who renovated the historic Beckley Newspapers building on Prince Street while operating on a strict timetable set by city officials, spoke up and said that legally, the city's Historic Landmarks Commission should have input into the proposed demolition. At-Large Councilman Cody Reedy interjected that the building could be placed on auction to raise money for the city.

At the suggestion of Ward V Councilwoman Janine Bullock, which Ward II Councilman Bob Canter supported, council decided to gather more information on the building prior to agreeing to the proposed demolition.

At least five reported council members — Bullock, Sopher, Dunlap, Reedy and Canter — now plan to tour the building to see if it is salvageable.

"I'm not in favor of it," the mayor said. "But on the other hand, I've been advised by (city attorney Bill File) that it's best to allow council to go."

Rappold said that council will take the tour on Tuesday morning after an 8:30 a.m. meeting regarding an upcoming levy.

"Immediately following that very brief meeting, we'll give the key to whoever is leading this expedition, and they can tour the building," said Rappold. "We have prepared a waiver for each of them to sign, which is fairly extensive and absolves the city of any liability and actually places all liability for any injuries or further damage to the property on those who have chosen, of their own volition, to take this tour.

"Frankly," he added, "I wouldn't go in there. I don't think I'd go in there with a mask, the type of which we're all wearing due to Covid, due to the tremendous amount of bird droppings in that building.

"I can only say there are pigeons that have roosted there."

Bird poop is the least of the problems, according to Rappold.

"It's pretty sad inside," he reported. "There's water standing in parts of the building from the leak in the roof.

"There's brick in the northwest corner of that wall that has begun to disintegrate, and I worry about people who live there, on that end of Heber Street, coming and going in their cars, much less walking up there."

Rappold said that a Council member has asked for the city's fire chief and a code enforcement officer to take the tour with them. He reported that he cannot, under state safety laws, require a city employee to take the tour.

"There's a state law that says you can't send an employee into a known hazardous work space," said the mayor. "So I can't, in good conscience due to that law, instruct any city employee to accompany these Council people, who feel they need to tour that building out of curiosity."

He said he has not spoken to any city employee about the planned tour of 227 Prince, which two different investors said, respectively, would take $1.2 million or $1.5 million to renovate.

Ward IV Councilman Kevin Price and At-Large Councilwoman Sherrie Hunter have expressed support for demolition of the building in the past.

The city had bought the building about three years ago for $111,000. Rappold said Thursday that the city purchased the building when an investor had expressed interest to turn it into a halfway house. The goal then was to turn it into a parking lot for future businesses.

In June, the Walton building on Main Street suffered a collapsed roof around 3 a.m. The collapse led to the historic Walton building and the newly renovated Stephen New Law Office building next door being demolished. Clearing the lots closed Main Street for five months, as one other local business was also damaged.

In response, the city started a survey of older buildings to determine those that could present dangers, said Rappold. According to the mayor, engineers said 227 Prince St. should be demolished.

Meanwhile, parking spaces had opened up for courthouse employees on Prince Street, so city officials decided it would be in the best interest to demolish 227 Prince and use the space for an outdoor farmer's market or a place to host mini concerts.

"Thank God, the Main Street collapse last June occurred at 3:10 a.m.," Rappold said Thursday. "If it had been 3:10 in the afternoon, who knows who may have been injured or killed, or how many vehicles could've been damaged?

"That's my concern about this Prince Street property. That Main Street property collapsed, totally unexpectedly, without the benefit of any previous engineering reports about the safety of the building.

"In that case, we didn't have an engineer's report, and now we do have an engineering report on a building that the city owns.

"Certain council people seem to be casting that aside in their wish to tour that building or to keep the building.

"I respect the Historic Landmarks Commission," said the mayor. "However, as mayor, I would not be doing my duty if I placed the wish of the Historic Landmark Commission over the physical safety of residents and property in the City of Beckley."

Rappold added that he was a strong proponent of the city purchasing the historic Black Knight Country Club and preserving and renovating the historic Naff building and turning it into a welcome center, as a way of maintaining significant buildings in the city's history.

Councilman Dunlap said he plans to tour 227 Prince St. as a former commission member.

"I spent those years on the Historic Landmark Commission, when we were threatened to be delisted, as a historic district, if the city continues to frivolously demolish properties instead of making the preservation of our architectural structures a priority," said Dunlap.

Dunlap said the goal of the walk-through is to determine if the building would better be preserved and listed for auction or sale and generate "more in B&O taxes than meter parking spaces for an empty uptown area."

"I'm doing exactly what I promised, if elected: bringing a common sense and business approach to the representation of my constituents."

----Some see 227 Prince St. as a battle line between the preservation of the city's federally recognized historic district and a recent trend in the city of tearing down historic buildings to make room for parking lots and green spaces.

Beckley Courthouse Square, including the Prince Street building, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The designation allows the city to be eligible for tax credits and federal loans that aim to preserve historic buildings.

Although the eight-block square has been on the National Register since 1994, the city's National Historic District was placed on the "Endangered Properties List" by the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, a nonprofit that promotes historic preservation in the state.

Beckley had by 2018 lost 22 of its 100 historic buildings to demolitions and renovations that didn't meet historically appropriate standards, PAWS Southern District Representative David Sibray reported.

The Historic Landmarks Commission is authorized, but not required, under West Virginia code to survey and designate historic buildings which are principal historical and architectural sites.

By law, the city Historic Landmarks Commission is responsible for overseeing the development of the historic district. The commission is the architectural and judiciary body that uses a set of guidelines to protect the district from "inappropriate alterations" and demolitions.

The push by Sopher and Dunlap to involve the commission in a demolition decision could strengthen the role of the Historic Landmarks Commission, which Interdonato reported is flailing and isolated from council decisions regarding historic buildings.

He said the commission last met in December 2019.

"We had not met for one year," Interdonato said.

Commission Chair Bob Cannon retired recently, Interdonato added.

"Two members of the commission of five have died and were replaced," said Interdonato. "We have not been called to act on the Prince Street building.

"The last meeting was the one (in December 2019). It was the former Rollinson Car dealership building (Burleson building)."

The city bought and demolished the historic Burleson building on Earwood Street in 2019.

According to Interdonato and Sopher, current commission members are Interdonato, Howard Vest, Tara Barlow and Bill Richmond.