The Yazoo City Fire Department’s central station collapsed early Saturday evening with rubble from the historic building falling into Washington Street next to City Hall.
Fortunately, no one was inside the building when it collapsed, and the incident remains under investigation. Our local firefighters were returning from a call when the incident occurred and were not inside the building when it came crashing down. We thank God for that silver lining.
And although it is perhaps easy to question what our current city administration could have done to prevent this incident, we feel it is not completely fair to hold our current city leaders entirely responsible for this state of emergency.
The condition of the entire City Hall has made headlines with this newspaper since at least 2007, long before the current city administration. The Herald took a tour with a concerned firefighter nearly 20 years ago and personally observed crumbling bricks, structural concerns and other questionable conditions. We gave it plenty of ink, urging former city council members to address the issues before the historic building found itself beyond repair.
We had a glimmer of hope when another city administration announced with much fanfare that the city of Yazoo City was a recipient of a grant that would be used to renovate the City Hall building, specifically detailing the exterior of the building. It was even mentioned that the historic bell tower would be included in the project. It was stated that “Yazoo City was the only municipality in the state that earned a preservation grant with ‘flying colors’ to repair the historic City Hall.”
Bids were awarded, and reports were provided that the project was moving along. But less than ten years after the grant program, we are left with half of City Hall crumbling in our public streets.
We question the priorities of work that were included in that grant program. “Crumbling bricks” were specifically mentioned during that award announcement, yet bricks continued to fall. Were the funds used for structural repairs or cosmetic additions?
We intend to find out.
Kicking the can down the road has been one of the main criticisms of our city leadership over the years. But one can’t make that criticism based on our current city leaders alone. Just like the deteriorating Triangle Cultural Center, which could see the same fate as our fire station, several renovation projects within our community should have started with previous city administrations.
Let’s shift gears. Instead of looking at who or what to blame, let’s focus on moving forward so that history does not repeat itself with other much-needed projects. Yazoo’s historic buildings should be seen in person and not just in history books. And certainly not seen as rubble in the streets.
