Mayor warns if Lincoln Place situation isn’t solved soon, we could lose Regent theater
The Wellington Regent in the background has been adversely affected by road closing.
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — We are approaching the six-month anniversary of the disaster that befell the Lincoln Place building on Washington and Lincoln on July 14, 2016, yet the issue remains unresolved.
And it could cost the community its movie theater.
Wellington Mayor Shelley Hansel said the Wellington Regent Theater, which is situated catty corner of the condemned building, has been losing significant amount of business since the street closure. Her statement was later confirmed by Jerry Fike, the business manager of the town’s lone movie theater.
“I think all the business owners in the area are frustrated and tired of the situation,” Hansel said. “But the Regent is especially hurt because they rely on foot traffic. For whatever reason people aren’t coming because of the situation downtown. The other night I was at a movie with 40 people there. It should have been 100.”
Still, the council took no action, upon the recommendation of new city attorney Shawn DeJarnett.
“I think my biggest concern is the city’s liability,” DeJarnett said. “If you were to take down the barricades, and something were to happen,” say a brick falls and hits a car” then the city is going to be sued.”
Wellington City Manager Shane Shields said there is progress being made. The city received an update from the insurance adjustor Tuesday morning concerning the possible cost of demolishing the building. The city of Wellington is also preparing a bid advertisement in case it is decided to demolish the building.
The building at 107 W. Lincoln, which was once used by the Wellington Masonic Lodge as well as Susan’s Portrait Studio, has been roped off and was declared an immediate hazard after a pool of water on the top of the roof caused by a very wet spring and large July rainstorm, gave way and destroyed the interior part of the building below.
Red Beard Barbershop, who was renting in the corner building at the time, was forced to close and has never reopened. The city has since barricaded the street to the south in fear that the building would collapse. Lincoln Street, between Washington and Jefferson, is considered an important connector street for downtown traffic.
The council spoke about the inconsistencies of closing down Lincoln while leaving, for example, the alley open on the east side of the city parking lot to the building’s west.
Shields said this is in response to a professional engineering report completed in 2016 that said if the building were to collapse it would probably fall to the south.
“I think I too would have some concerns with the liability of opening up the street,” Shields said. “But if the council wants it open, I’ll do so.”
Wellington City Council member Jim Valentine said he spoke with someone familiar with building demolition, and he was told if a building collapses the affected area would consist of the building’s height and then another half more.
Hansel said she observed foot traffic on the adjacent sidewalk and noticed that many people ignore the barricades and walk next to the building anyway. DeJarnett said if the building was to fall on a person who ignored the barricades, the city would not be as liable because the person was warned.
It was discussed whether or not to open just half of the street to allow traffic to flow to the east. Still there was the problem with liability, DeJarnett said.
“We have all worked with insurance, and know how slowly the process takes,” DeJarnett said.
“It looks like we are getting close to resolving this issue anyway,” said council member Janice Korte.
The council took no action on the non-agenda item.
