During the Little Rock City Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday night, directors shared concerns about the recovery process from the tornado that ravaged the city on March 30.
City Director Dean Kumpuris raised concerns about possible roadblocks businesses could face recovering from the recent tornado. He said there are concerns older businesses won’t be able to reopen because there are regulations in place that weren’t in place when those businesses were established.
“There’s going to be places where we’re going to leave a hole in the commercial situation if we don’t think out how to do it. They [businesses] can’t build back where they are given what we have to have right now for parking and things like that,” Kumpuris said.
He said he is working on a resolution to address the issue. Kumpuris said the resolution has been sent to City Attorney Tom Carpenter to review the legality of it. Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said the issue will need to be studied closely so planning issues don’t arise.
City Manager Bruce Moore said the city has dealt with a similar situation in the past and businesses were allowed to rebuild in their original form.
Debris cleanup
In addition to concerns about rebuilding businesses, concerns about cleaning up debris from the tornado were raised by city directors Kathy Webb and Lance Hines.
Both said they have been contacted by residents about the issue. Hines said residents have contacted him about the limited hours Reservoir Park is open, which is where the city has designated debris drop off.
“They’ve hired crews to move this stuff off their property. The problem is when we close that Reservoir [Park] at 5:00 we still got two to three hours of daylight working and these crews are stopping work, which is delaying the cleanup,” he said.
In response to the concerns, Scott said he will look into keeping the debris drop at Reservoir Park open longer.
