Firefighters from the Greensburg Fire Department were on Franklin Street Friday afternoon cordoning off an historic downtown building between the Beach Tiki Bar and Grill and the Bourbon Street Pub.
According to planning and zoning director Kathy Reynolds, the building had been deemed as “unsafe” in September of last year. The owner, Butella Taylor, and her daughter and building caretaker Linda Taylor had received a written notification in September about the building’s condition.
Then, the city began working with the Taylors to bring an end to the situation that had started months ago.
In 2008, the building came to the city’s attention from a report by a neighbor who had been experiencing roofing repairs. One of the roofers from the construction crew noticed the crumbling roof and serious structural issues from the nearby building. The roofers then reported it to the client.
Shortly thereafter, the Greensburg Fire Department investigated the building and found a gaping hole in the roof and significant pulling from the parapet. The roof also appeared wavy, Reynolds reported. Some of it had collapsed, and there appeared to be only one bearing wall and some supports still holding up the perilous roof. Inside the building, old clothes and newspapers litter the rooms, creating the potential for serious destruction if the building were ever to catch on fire.
After contacting the Taylors regarding the issue and a few meetings later, the first of the new year came and nothing had been done to the structure, Reynolds remarked.
Yesterday, the Greensburg Fire Department appeared outside the building in the afternoon, placing barricades and caution tape around the front of the structure.
“All we’re doing is blocking it off today,” Assistant Fire Chief Randy Hoeing said outside the building.
For the city of Greensburg and Reynolds, placing the barriers and following up later this year with further investigation is an issue of security.
“We do this for the safety of the public,” she said.
Reynolds added that the next step will be to contact the Taylors to find out their intentions and where the future of the building may lie. With the building so damaged and the roof so unstable, Reynolds said that demolition may be the only option.
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