Historic walls of Greenville: We need to decide if they stand

Greetings Community,

I am writing to update all of you, the incredible people who have put in effort, care, and resources, regarding where we are on the preservation of Greenville’s last standing historic buildings. Through a tremendous community and volunteer effort, we’ve completed 4 of the 5 steps needed to preserve the walls. I have outlined the steps at the end of this letter in more detail. Steps 1-4 were undertaken with private funding, local and business contributions, and tremendous support through donations of time, materials, and professional expertise regionally and nationally. Step 5 will only be partially completed by the state clean-up program, and the remaining cost will be left to the property owners.

Many of you have agreed that preserving these buildings is of value, with their historical connections to our collective past and as one of the anchors for rebuild and economic development in the downtown of Greenville.

It is important for us to know, however, that current efforts may not be enough to keep the walls standing through Step 5 of the debris removal/clean-up process.

As things currently stand, Step 5 will be resource intensive and expensive. The state clean-up program is unable to fully clean the sites given access issues into the buildings among many other concerns. This will leave the individual property owners personally responsible for the remaining clean-up.

Unfortunately, time is not on our side. The owners of these three buildings may have to make the decision to demolish the walls within the next few days given that the state removal program is at an end and their contractors are leaving the area. I hope you will consider supporting the position that if we collectively value keeping the walls, we need to collectively find a way to fund the rest of the clean-up work. This is an opportunity for the community to come together and decide if the remaining historic walls of Greenville are worth our continued support as a community.

We have asked the Dixie Fire Collaborative to consider funding the remaining private clean-up and they will be considering our proposal this evening. The cost of the remaining clean-up to the Masonic Hall, the Salon and the Way Station (the County is working separately on the Sub-station) is unknown. We have requested a commitment for payments to a private contractor not to exceed $500,000 for the remaining clean-up, hoping this cost will be much less depending on what is left after the state debris removal program leaves.

Are there other funding sources that could help off-set the cost?

Do we support the Dixie Fire Collaborative allocating funds for this purpose, and if so, how much?

Please make your thoughts known to Dixie Fire Collaborative at https://www.dixiefirecollaborative.org.

Please direct any suggestions for funding to [email protected].

I wish we had more time, but we don’t. The walls may come down in the next few days unless some other alternative emerges. Whatever the outcome, thank you for your support and consideration. The work and care given thus far have brought us together in amazing ways that transcend the physical buildings. Greenville will always find ways to celebrate and honor our town’s history even if we lose the walls.

The 5 steps:
Engineering assessment and stabilization plan – coordinated and supported through local effort, developed by an international engineering firm with expertise in historic buildings (complete) Install engineer-designed stabilization system on standing walls – work completed by the non-profit CPI Foundation’s team of active duty military service members from military installations around the world/currently training in construction at Alcatraz Island, along with local construction experts/crews (complete, with the exception of a few side and rear walls for which the team ran out of time, those walls demolished/to be demolished)
Engineering inspection of completed stabilization work – coordinated and supported through local effort with engineers from step 1 (complete)
Historic brick salvage – work completed by Team Rubicon’s military veteran disaster response volunteers from around the Northern California and Nevada along with local volunteers, final disposition of bricks to be decided later by owners/community (complete)
Required debris removal/site cleanup – (yet to be completed)

Sincerely,
Tanya Komas

Greenville