County Road Department takes down privately-owned buildings

The same week that the Mississippi County Quorum Court voted to authorize Judge Randy Carney to sign a Consent Administrative Order (CAO) with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) that admits that the county did possibly violate federal and state law when crews tore down the former Osceola City Jail, it was also revealed that the county Road Department has been involved as recently as this week in the demolition of other buildings on private properties for free and likewise without submitting asbestos surveys to the ADEQ.

Also at least one demolition, the former temporary officer’s barrack on the former Air Force base, violated City of Blytheville law by not obtaining a demolition permit before demolition began and was basically pushed into a massive hole on the adjacent property.

According to the CAO, the county was fined $2,800 (later reduced to $1,400) because around February 24, 2016, the county Road Department demolished the former Osceola City Jail and the required Notice of Intent (NOI) was not filed on time. Its filing is legally mandated at least 10 days prior to demolition. A month later, when ADEQ did receive the report, critical information was omitted.

Arkansas law “authorizes ADEQ to assess an administrative civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per violation for any violation of any provision of the Act and any regulation or permit issued pursuant to the act.” Also, “each day of a continuing violation may be deemed a separate violation for the purposes of penalty assessment.”

With four days activity on the project, it was possible that ADEQ could have fined the county up to $40,000.

The Osceola property was owned by the county and on the same day as demolition began, an anonymous complaint was made with the ADEQ “alleging noncompliance with APC&EC Regulation 21 for asbestos renovation and demolition activities at the site.”

As a result, ADEQ called Carney on February 25, 2016 and “during the discussion, ADEQ personnel explained applicable regulations for APC&EC Regulation 21 regarding asbestos inspections and demolitions.” According to the CAO, during the conversation, “ADEQ personnel asked Mr. Carney if an asbestos survey was conducted prior to demolition…and if a Notice of Intent (NOI) was submitted to ADEQ. Mr. Carney stated that the demolition of the structure in question was almost complete. In addition, Mr. Carney stated that the necessary documents to correct the issue will be provided to ADEQ.”

The NOI was received by the ADEQ on March 22, 2016 and listed Landfill Director Wil Allen as the contractor. Also, “No inspector was listed as required by APC&EC Regulation 21.606 (R) for this NOI” and the county listed “not applicable” to the APC&EC Regulation 21.606(K) requirement that an NOI include a description of work practices and engineering controls to be used to prevent emissions of asbestos at the demolition site.”

Carney said that Allen, though listed, did not receive any additional pay for his services beyond his regular salary.

In the report, the county neither confirmed nor denied that asbestos was present in the structure. They also did not indicate whether or not an asbestos inspection was conducted prior to demolition.

Therefore ADEQ ruled that the county “failed to conduct or have conducted a thorough asbestos inspection of the affect facility prior to beginning demolition. They also, in violation of current law, ‘failed to provide documentation that an asbestos inspection was conducted prior to the demolition activity.’ Therefore, the county also in violation of law, ‘failed to submit a written NOI and appropriate NOI fee to ADEQ at least ten (10) working days prior to commencing the demolition activity.’”

When Tony Stone, director of the Mississippi County Road Department, was asked by the CN what the Road Department was doing tearing down buildings around the county including the barrack, he answered, “You’d have to ask the judge.”

Later, Stone did say that Carney had ordered the work to be done and when asked if the department was charging for the work to be done, he said they were not. He was also asked whether or not the county was collecting copper, wire and scrap metal from the demolition site to sell.

Stone said, “We keep it in a pile and sell to scrap iron for the Road Department, that is how we get back some of the gas.” But Stone denied that any of the proceeds were kept for personal use.

Carney also confirmed Friday that he ordered the demolition of the buildings, including the former barrack owned by Westminster Village.

“Westminster Village approached me and asked me if we would do if for them and help them,” Carney said. “That was mostly done on a weekend job. Our Road Superintendent Tony Stone worked last weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Now I don’t propose working on Sunday if you don’t have to, but he did most of it on his own time…it was the right thing to do. It was one of the biggest eyesores in the county…Now I’ve gotten a lot of positive phone calls and feedback about it. So, we just try to be a good neighbor as a county and help poor cities and towns look better.”

Carney also explained why he has agreed to use county equipment on private property, “Seven years ago when I become the county judge, I went to just about every city in our county and most of them, I put the mayor of the city or town, whatever, in the car and we drove around their towns and I said you need to clean up your towns. I said people are not going to move here and most of the mayors have complied and I told them if we can do anything to help them from a county standpoint we would. Anything to improve our county and the looks of it and to make it attractive so that people will move here, then you need to do it and we will help you do it. So that has been one of our goals for seven years is to improve the looks of our county. Most of the mayors have done it. Joiner has done a lot of cleanup. A lot of the little towns in the south…Leachville and Manila have both done it. And everywhere where we really needed the work, the mayors have joined in and cooperated and we’ve tried to help them.”

Stone also confirmed that demolition work had been done at the former Shawnee School in Joiner and a house in Leachville.

It was also revealed later by another source that a privately owned house on Baltimore Avenue in Manila was also torn down by the Road Department.

Justice of the Peace and Building Inspector Rick Ash of the City of Blytheville’s Office of Code Enforcement said that before tearing down a structure like the barrack, “They must get a demolition permit. That permit requires that all utilities be disconnected. An asbestos check must be made and any asbestos must be abated. A traffic control plan must be performed as well as a plan for control of any vermin in the area.”

Ash also said that no demolition permit had been issued for the demolition of the barrack.

Carney also confirmed that a demolition permit was not obtained before demolition began at the barrack. Also, despite being fined for not doing an asbestos survey or filing an NOI with ADEQ before tearing down the Osceola City Jail, when asked if an asbestos survey or abatement was performed on the barrack before demolition began he said, “I’d say no. Not on that building.”

ADEQ public information officer Kelly Robinson told the CN Friday that there are no asbestos surveys or NOIs filed with ADEQ for any of the properties mentioned in this article, with the exception of the late NOI filed on the former Osceola jail.

Westminster Village (WV) Executive Director Linda O’Guin confirmed that Westminster Village and not the Blytheville-Gosnell Regional Airport Authority owned the now torn down barrack.

When asked if it was tore down by the Road Department, she answered, “I just know it was the county that is helping us out.”

She also said that WV is not paying the county to tear down and bury the building. Carney also confirmed that no one is being charged for any of the demolitions mentioned.

When asked whom she asked at the county to tear the building down, her answer was, “I’d just rather not say. …They were going to help us with the landfill on another house they helped us with. We asked if they could help and they said they would…but it was only half a building. Anything inside it had already been exposed for two years...it was just an eyesore. I don’t know why anyone would be unhappy about that. It was an eyesore and it’s in the entire county’s interest for it to be gone…the board thinks it’s a wonderful thing that they helped.”

When pressed further, “Was the county judge the one that said the county would help,” O’Guin once again answered, “The demolition crew was here to help us on the landfill with the house on Grapevine. They offered to do the building and we let them.”

As mentioned earlier, Carney confirmed that Westminster Village approached him about the county helping with the demolition.

O’Guin was asked if the building had a history with asbestos. She said, “Anything in that building has been exposed for over two years…it was just hanging there and doing no one any good.”

She also confirmed that a demolition permit was not obtained before the work was done, “unless the county got one.”

Regarding whether or not a special arrangement had been made regarding the copper and wiring of the building, she explained, “No; anything of value with the building was given to the county if they wanted it.”

When Carney was asked if Road Department personnel was collecting copper, wire and scrap metal from those buildings that are being town down for resell and where those funds were going, he said, “Well actually there was one truckload of stuff; you were talking about the copper and that stuff. It is going to go to the…in fact we had, I believe it was Blytheville Iron and Metal come and pick it up and they will write the check to the Mississippi County Road Department and it will go to the Road Department fund. That is probably going to pay for fuel and that kind of stuff. It wasn’t much.”

O’Guin also said that she did not know if the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) "was okay" with the building being buried like it was. 

When Carney was asked if the ADEQ said that it was okay to tear down the barrack and basically bury it in the hole right there next to it, he said, “I didn’t ask them.”

Carney was asked by the CN Friday, “In the past you have used county equipment on certain things and even some of the JPs [Justices of the Peace on the Quorum Court have] come out publicly questioning the legality, why do you continue to do that?

“Well I thought I explained that early on. We’re doing everything we can to improve our towns and our cities to look better. Anybody that complains about what we did out on the base is…they must be very miserable people, and all they want to do is make somebody else’s life miserable because what we did was a good thing. It was a positive thing. Like I said, it was probably the worst eyesore in the county, so we did the right thing by doing what we did.

“We probably rushed the job a little bit and didn’t get the permit and the asbestos reports done, but overall what we did…I’m proud of what we did. Westminster Village, they don’t have the funds to knock that down. I don’t know what that would have cost to do that. Like I said all that we are going to get out of it is…that one truckload of copper and metal whatever to pay for our fuel. We are just trying to do the right thing and help the people out. When the mayors call me and ask me for help, if we can, we do,” Carney explained.

Eddie Jones, who served as a consultant for the county through the Arkansas Association of Counties, was quoted in the June 16, 2013 edition of the CN in a story entitled “County judge defends use of county resources” as saying that there is case and constitutional law to say that the usage of county equipment on private property should not be done, but added that his opinions were not definitive since every case is different.

He was also quoted as saying “It is generally held that county labor and equipment cannot be used to make improvements to private property. This has much more to do with case law and constitutional law than Arkansas code for county government. County funds must be expended for a public purpose (Atty. General Opinion #2005-062 and 2000-243). The requirement of expending county funds for a public purpose emanates from Arkansas Constitution, Article 16, Section 13, and Article 12, Section 5. The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that any use of county equipment must be both for a public purpose and authorized by law. (Also suggested Attorney General Opinions #97-248, #98-163, #2005-248, #2008-179, and #2012-066).”

“By state law and the Road Department, we [the Quorum Court] can make a suggestion. We can ask him [the county judge]. But we can’t tell him what he can do,” Finance Committee Chairman Michael White told the CN Thursday.

White also said that when the former Osceola City Jail was demolished there wasn’t much in the way of scrap metal revenue.

“I think that we sold what scrap was in it and made about $1,500,” White said.

Regarding the ADEQ fine surrounding the demolition of the former Osceola City Jail, White said, “They fined us $2,800 but said that if we would sign the Consent Administrative Order (CAO) and admit what we had done, then they would reduce that fine to $1,400. But if you look at the order, the maximum fine could have been up to $10,000 a day I think and we had about four days of activity. So they could have fined us up to $40,000 or so and to get by with only paying $1,400 is pretty lenient.”

When asked if it was customary for county equipment to be used on private property, White said, “Since the county judge has taken office, if he could help a community with county equipment, then he’s tried to help…at times that can be walking a fine line on legality…previous judges usually helped in times of disaster such as a tornado, that bad ice storm in ’09, wind storms…they tried to help the small communities in the area that did not have the equipment on their own…but sometimes he walks a fine line.”

When asked if it was legal to use county Road Department equipment to tear down the Westminster Village barrack, White said, “I don’t know. I’m not saying it is legal and I’m not saying it’s not…but I know that it is not legal to take it on private property.”

Most all of the properties listed in this story as having been demolished by the Road Department are private property. The only property owned by the county was the former Osceola City Jail.

When White was asked where the revenue from the selling of the demolished building’s scrap metal should be deposited, White said, “That should come back to County General…there better be an audit trail.”

In the past, when scrap metals were sold through the landfill, the money was to be deposited back into the general fund, but then of course the Landfill used their proceeds for an employee fish fry under former Landfill Director Nathan Taylor and that is one of the things that precipitated the FBI and ASP investigation.

When Carney was asked if it was illegal to use county equipment to tear down private property, he answered, “Well, every case is different. Different points of view on that. Some cases it probably is, but…the big thing is this asbestos situation. The asbestos removal. Some of the buildings probably had asbestos in it. We’ve got a licensed inspector that inspects those for us that is on our staff. The one last time is we just didn’t get the paperwork on time, the city jail in Osceola, so we just didn’t …we were supposed to get the paperwork to them 10 days before demolition and we just didn’t do it. So that was the deal on that.”

Carney then, when asked said that Wil Allen is the county employee that is a licensed inspector.

thenry@blythevillecourier.com