The city rejected demolition bids last week for the former Trojan Field House, telling the Hot Springs Board of Directors both bids exceeded available funding.
Melton Excavating of Hot Springs' $78,000 bid was the lowest of the two received at the Nov. 21 bid opening, according to copies of the bids the city provided in response to a records request. Environmental Enterprise Group of Russellville bid $246,249.
City Manager Bill Burrough told the board in October the demolition budget had an $87,000 balance. The city said neither bid included abatement nor disposal of hazardous materials.
"That's going to be the lion's share of that project," Deputy City Manager Lance Spicer told the board.
He said the city will solicit separate bids for abatement and demolition.
"It's a large structure," Spicer told the board. "We're trying to use the money as best we can."
The board condemned the historic property in September. Chief Building Official Mike Scott told city directors Monolith Properties had done no work at the field house since acquiring it in 2017. He said the roof was sagging and the floor was rotten in many places.
"One of our biggest concerns is parts of the roof collapsing, because there has been parts of it fall on the floor," he said. "It has quite a bit of a sag in it in one place."
The $151.7 million 2023 budget the board adopted last month included $100,000 for the demolition of unsafe structures. The board resolved to allocate more money for demolitions last year, authorizing a midyear appropriation of $100,000 from the general fund to address a backlog of roughly 200 properties on the planning and development department's list of vacant/unsafe structures.
The money raised the demolition budget to $160,000, of which $48,000 was reappropriated to the current year.
Scott told the board it costs about $4,900 on average to demolish and remove a condemned structure.
"If it's a brick house, that's more expensive, because debris is by weight," he said. "There's a lot of variables in there."
He said the vacant structure at 105 Logan Loop the board considered for condemnation Tuesday night should cost about $3,000. It was damaged by a fire earlier this year.
"It's smaller and easy to get to," he said. "We tore down a similar one last week, and it was $3,000."
The city's property maintenance code authorizes it to demolish structures condemned by the board if the property isn't brought up to code within 30 days of the enabling resolution being posted at the property. Property records showed 28 such resolutions have been recorded this year.
According to an excerpt from "The Castle on the Hill: Hot Springs High School 1916-1968" by Renee Lambert Lucy, which the Garland County Historical Society included in The Record 2014, local architect Irven Granger McDaniel designed the field house.
The Hot Springs High School Trojans played the first basketball game there in 1951, and the high school held graduation ceremonies there from 1957 to 1963. The Historical Society said the high school moved to its current Emory Street location in 1968.
According to the "The Wright Style in Hot Springs: The Architecture of I. Granger McDaniel" by J. Mason Toms, which the Historical Society published in The Record 2017, McDaniel's service as a bomber pilot for the Royal Air Force in World War II informed the aircraft hangar look of the building.
The article said McDaniel also designed the Weyerhaeuser offices at 810 Whittington Ave., the former Hot Springs Savings & Loan Auto Bank at 200 Park Ave. and the old Social Security administrative offices on Hazel Street.