One of three blocks in downtown Pine Bluff that have been closed for 16 months was reopened to traffic Thursday, but the other two blocks will remain closed at least three more months, the mayor said.
The Main Street area between Fourth and Fifth avenues reopened with two lanes of traffic at 1 p.m. Thursday after being closed since February 2015.
The portion of Main Street between Sixth and Eighth avenues will remain closed pending a September court date for a property owner, according to a news release from Mayor Debe Hollingsworth's office.
Before the Fourth and Fifth avenues' reopening, three blocks of Main Street had been declared impassable by the city because of debris from decaying century-old buildings, leading to new traffic detours and complaints by commercial owners who felt their businesses were suffering.
Kendrick "Pop" Williams, who owns Pop's Barber & Beauty Shop on Main Street, said his was among those negatively affected.
"We have to go through a maze just to get to work," he said Thursday. "We have customers coming from out of town and they use navigation to get here and the navigation systems don't know the detour."
Williams estimated his shop had lost about 40 percent of its business.
"We used to have traffic coming through all the time; now we don't have that," Williams said. "Back in the day, we'd pick up a lot of new clients because people were passing through all the time, and now it's a new era. There aren't as many passers-by."
Before the demolition began, Williams said, he had purchased a building at 400 S. Main St. but hasn't moved into the space.
Williams opened the shop at its current location in 2003.
"People talk about the good old days back in the '60s, but I never experienced that," he said. "I know the good old days back when we started and I know we've got a lot to offer in this great city now."
Danny Bradshaw, owner of Mr. Brick Antique Brick Buy and Sell, is in the process of tearing down and reclaiming the brick, trusses and wooden beams from four buildings he owns on the east side of the 400 block of Main Street, a process Alderman Steven Mays said was not part of Bradshaw's original contract.
In October, Hollingsworth said she was hopeful that Bradshaw would have the Fourth and Fifth avenues' portion of Main Street cleared and reopened within a few weeks. In May Bradshaw told council members he hoped to clear the street by June 15.
Mays called the reopening a great moment forward, but he said the street's closure had done irreparable damage to Pine Bluff and its downtown businesses.
"I personally feel that the buildings should have all been torn down during demolition," he said. "[Bradshaw] ended up salvaging a lot of the building materials piece by piece and the initial contract was a demolition contract, not a deconstruction contract."
Hollingsworth, whose office said she was unavailable for comment, said in a statement sent to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that she was happy to see traffic return to two lanes of Main Street.
In the statement, she said the city's decision to work with Bradshaw -- who demolished four of Main Street's buildings, including a four-story building at no cost to the city -- had saved Pine Bluff more than $400,000.
But Mays said the damage done by the long-term closure necessitated action to prevent similar blows to the city's commercial landscape in the future. He has a proposed ordinance before the City Council that separates demolition from deconstruction, shortening the time that could render downtown areas inaccessible and that could affect surrounding businesses.
The proposal allows property owners no more than 90 days to complete the demolition work with an allowance for a 30-day extension, with a $50-per-day fine kicking in thereafter.
Mays said the reopening of at least one section of Main Street is a good start for the city.
"My only agenda is to help the people of Pine Bluff," he said. "I kept fighting for the citizens of Pine Bluff and I'm excited for them because we can start redeveloping and rebuilding the downtown."
State Desk on 07/01/2016