Roof caves in at Mid-South Music on Main Street

A partial cave-in to the roof of Mid-South Music Co. in the 400 block of South Main Street was reported Thursday afternoon.

Both Pine Bluff Street Department Manager Rick Rhoden and Pine Bluff Fire and Emergency Services Chief Shauwn Howell said the roof on the building, which is owned Robert English, “gave way.”

“You can’t see anything from the street,” Howell said, adding that he was not aware of any injuries as a result of the cave-in.

Rhoden said when he received the call, he went to the scene and expected to have to bring in equipment to remove the debris.

“There was nothing in the street at all,” he said.

The 400 block of Main Street had been closed to traffic Feb. 21 because two nearby buildings on the block collapsed into the road. Since then, Street Department officials had pushed back the barricades partially to allow English to remove some of the material from his store.

“We have completely closed off the street now,” Rhoden said.

Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said the cave-in is confined to the four walls of the building, but city officials don’t know at this point if it extends from the second floor to the first floor.

In an interview with The Commercial last week, English said he was in the process of moving all his merchandise and was planning to relocate, but he didn’t know exactly where.

As for what’s next, Hollingsworth said, “We’re going to have to meet with Mr. English and see what his plans are for the building.”

English also said in the interview last week that he had patched the roof of the building, but estimated that it would take $100,000 to repair the roof, money he said he didn’t have.

A phone number listed for English had been disconnected.

“Those buildings downtown have been neglected for years and now we’ve got to deal with them and we’re going to deal with them,” Hollingsworth said.

The incident is the latest in a series of collapses in the downtown area that started with a vacant building at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Main Street on Feb. 20, 2014. Cleanup efforts for that building continued until September when the final debris was removed by a private contractor hired by the building owner.

On July 25, 2014, the roof of the former Sahara Temple in the 600 block of Main Street fell in, sending bricks and debris onto the street below. State highway department officials originally closed Main Street but have since reopened the northbound lanes. Five members of the city council have voted to condemn the building. The city is working with the building’s owner, Garland Trice, in an effort to get him to tear down the building. But Trice has been vocal in his opposition to city officials’ handling of the situation throughout the process. Trice has said he would like to repair the building.

On Feb. 21, the former Band Museum and VFW post, also in the 400 block of Main Street, collapsed in the early morning hours, causing city officials to block off Main Street between West Fifth and Fourth avenues. Mid-South Music is on the same side of the street as the former Band Museum and VFW. The former Kohn Jewelry store is between them. Hollingsworth has said in previous interviews that its owner has agreed to tear it down.

A special city council meeting was called for Feb. 23 concerning the Band Museum and VFW building, and Hollingsworth asked the council to waive competitive bidding and allow her to sign a contract with a Little Rock demolition company to tear down the buildings, using money from the five-eights cent sales tax approved by county voters in 2011.

The council balked at that request, and on Monday, Hollingsworth removed from the agenda that proposed ordinance after a Pine Bluff company expressed interest in doing the job. The city has opened the project up to bids.