ALPINE, Texas — On Monday, the City of Alpine held a town workshop to provide an update on how the May 26 fire has affected Downtown Alpine and its businesses.
While the cause of the fire has yet to be confirmed, city council did address safety concerns regarding the surrounding area of the affected businesses.
“I had a team build a 35-foot wall. It’s eight feet high around the front of the building, to protect people from 1) open up the sidewalk and get people to walk again,” Ward 5 City Councilman Rick Stephens said. “We can open up the street, the street has been cleaned up so people can park there and make sure that no one's going to get into a hazardous area.”
Business owners whose livelihoods went with the flames are still picking up the pieces and trying to figure out what was lost and how much it will cost to get back to normal.
However, the City of Alpine has already begun to help in whichever way possible. One such organization, Historic Alpine, has already raised up to $29,000 in support for the business owners.
“Historic Alpine is a great not-for-profit in Alpine,” Stephens said. “It was put together to look at all the history in Alpine and how can they do things to make sure we retain the history here.”
There is still a little bit of time for people to get their donations in. After the deadline is hit, that's when Historic Alpine will answer the question of how to split the cash.
“The business owners have the opportunity to submit an application by June 6 this week,” Stephens said. “Then Historic Alpine will make some decisions about what's the best way to allocate those funds to help those business owners get reestablished and to help those business owners pay some of the bills because they've lost income.”
Another topic of discussion was regarding what to do with the space when it was refurbished.
Some ideas brought up were art galleries, retail space and a town square. Each idea would, in theory, attempt to restore Alpine as a tourist destination for the art scene.
Bill Ivey, who owns the property that was damaged in the fire, threw cold water on that idea. He says that the little things have been snowballing, and that for every step forward, it comes with five steps backward.
“I have to pay for an inspector to come and check for asbestos, which we all know it's not going to happen but anyway, still have to do it,” Ivey said. “But before they do that, now a structural engineer has to show up and make sure that it's safe for the inspector to go in.”
The tail end of the meeting was dedicated to lessons the city learned from the ordeal to make sure devastation like this doesn’t happen again.
“Those who own buildings, make sure your insurance is up to date. Make sure you've had a fire inspection. Make sure you understand what the escape routes are and that there's proper doors,” Stephens said. “Make sure that there's a way to get ahold of people and to make sure that you're going to be safe in any evacuations.”