HOT SPRINGS -- Park Residences Development said it has retained an environmental consulting firm and a Little Rock law firm as part of its effort to remove and dispose of the Majestic Hotel rubble at 101 Park Ave.

Park Residences Development acquired the property in 2012.

The Majestic Hotel complex's oldest part, known as "the Yellow Brick" building, was destroyed in a fire on Feb. 27. City officials had the building demolished Feb. 28 and March 1 to prevent the gutted-out remains from falling onto Park Avenue.

The heaps of debris have remained piled along Park Avenue since then pending the completion of Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality reports to assess whether any hazardous material was present.

The agency sent Garrison Hassenflu, manager of Park Residences Development, a letter in early June that gave him 10 days to provide a written notification of his intent to address concerns found in an environmental assessment.

The letter said Hassenflu's written notification should include a schedule for submitting a removal plan for agency's review and approval, and added that the removal actions should be completed within 60 calendar days of the receipt of the letter.

Hassenflu told The Sentinel-Record in June that the intention has always been to clean up the site and that sources of funding were being sought, but the efforts had been hindered by the Environmental Quality Department's not allowing access to the site to clean up the debris.

Hassenflu said in a June 30 letter to Tammie Hynum, chief of the Environmental Quality Department's Hazardous Waste Division, that Ecologic Inc. and Quattlebaum Grooms Tull & Burrow had been hired to assist in the effort to remove and dispose of any hazardous wastes and substances from the demolished "yellow building" at the Majestic Hotel site.

"It is our intent to remove debris from the property in order to assess the condition of the basement portion of the site," Hassenflu said in the letter.

After the debris from the site is removed, water from the basement of the razed Majestic Hotel building will be pumped out to provide access. The condition of existing equipment, including a 10,000-gallon, above-ground fuel storage tank, will then be assessed, Hassenflu's letter states.

"It is our intent to develop a removal plan, including a schedule that will be submitted to ADEQ, by July 21," he said.

Hassenflu said Park Residences Development hired ACES, a Department of Environmental Quality-licensed asbestos consulting firm, to collect some representative samples of material suspected of containing asbestos in the accessible parts of the debris pile after the February fire.

"Their sampling has identified some asbestos-containing building materials included in the debris," he said.

Hassenflu told the Department of Environmental Quality in his letter that an Ecologic representative will assist Park Residences in finalizing a debris removal plan and has met with Torrence Thrower, the Environmental Quality Department's Air Division environmental program director, regarding the site.

"Ecologic has also conducted a site visit, and it is our intent to include a written asbestos project design in our removal plan. It is our goal to clean up the former 'Yellow Building' site so that we can be back on track with our pre-fire redevelopment plan of converting the current structures into a 130-unit spa hotel," Hassenflu said.

In response to a citation issued to Hassenflu in June to appear in district court on June 23 for failure to remove the debris within the time period required by an official notice, an innocent plea was entered by his attorney. A trial has been scheduled for Oct. 15 in Garland County Circuit Court, according to the city attorney's office.

State Desk on 07/10/2014