BEATRICE – The City of Beatrice will hire an architect, seeking recommendations for possibly saving a dilapidated building at 413 Court Street in the downtown area.


The contract, with Fakler Architects, totals $9,000 and includes structural engineering services. The building being examined has been listed as condemned, for several months and is privately owned.


Councilman Ted Fairbanks supports the hiring of an architect to find out what the city is up against.  "It would be nice to be able to have the gentleman who owns it to do all of this but he won't even let us inspect it. It was difficult to just get in it. Time is of the essence and this is probably the best dollars spent going forward to try to save the building... because every day you wait, it makes it more difficult."


Main Street Beatrice Executive Director Michael Sothan supports efforts toward saving the building, saying the earlier that action can be taken in such cases, the better.


"It's no doubt that saving the building would be great and it's better for the neighboring buildings. But, I'm just wondering, we've let this sit for nearly two years now and we're finally getting to this point. I'd hate to see us do this and then at the same time, not having a single contractor willing to take it on....and that we're back to demolition as the only option."


Sothan encouraged the city to move forward on enforcing an adjoining building ordinance to inspect buildings and get ahead of dilapidation issues.