Thursday, June 14, 2018

SOUTHMOST BARRIO LANDMARK GOES UNDER THE TORCH


(Ed.'s Note: The water tower located on Southmost on the grounds of Cromack Elementary is coming down.
Many residents gave directions based on "la tinaja de agua" to guide people to the barrio. The  1.0 MG multi-column elevated storage tank was constructed in 1969 and was judged to be in "poor" condition by Brad McCrea–Dunham Engineering on March 2016.

At that time, the engineering firm recommended that "the tank should be rehabilitated, repaired or demolished within the next 12 months."

The PUB issued Requests For Qualifications (RFQs) to demolition firms and settled on Hunter Demolition & Wrecking (from Poteet, south of  San Antonio) and the amount of the award was $109,000.

The tower was erected in 1969 on land belonging to the Brownsville Independent School District on the Cromack Elementary School campus. Since then, it has fallen on hard times and had not been in use for more than a year before demolition began.

During the inspection, engineers noted that there was "widespread corrosion damage. Water compartment ladder and roof ladder is unsafe. Roof hatch is not locked. Holes in roof. Overflow flap valve does not function properly."

Additional problems existed because of "holes in roof and pinhole leaks due to corrosion damage...."

The streets (Southmost and Lima) will not be closed and the demolition will be contained in the fenced off area where the tank is currently located. The demolition company will be allowed to keep all the scrap metal to dispose of as it sees fit (scrap, salvage?). The only think the PUB will keep will be the antennas at the top of the structure.

The company feels it can accomplish the demolition within 120 days weather permitting.

We thank  Lima Street resident Jose Sandoval for this nice photo.)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those useless Southmost Mexicans do not deserve our water!

Anonymous said...

Make bikes for neighborhood residents with the scrap metal!!!

Anonymous said...

The metal will probably be used for Zippo lighters.

Anonymous said...

If the land belongs to BISD, was the city paying rent on it or what? If it still belongs to BISD, don't let them use it for another one of those stupid bike trails no one uses. Why doesn't the city lease it from BISD and build a post office substation so that people don't have to drive all over town trying to find one drop box. I think we have 5 drop boxes in Brownsville at the HEB on Southmost, Boca Chica, and Paredes, BISD, and the Palm Village. Maybe a private citizen could secure a permit for setting up a complete station in the east side of town so that we don't waste hours at the main office on Los Ebanos. Since the fed. govt does not own the PO anymore, it should not be a big deal for someone with Money. If I had the mula to invest, I would certainly think of that. The post office down town has no place to park and those that are reserved for that are used by those that don't even walk into the PO.

Anonymous said...

ladders for the border fence

Anonymous said...

Spectrum with a post office would be nice. Juan want another congal there.

Anonymous said...

Yeah! We need another post office! Olmito has more post office boxes than we do and that is a darn shame. But hurrah, we have more bike trails than anyone! Maybe we should hire bike riders to go around town and pick up letters that need to be mailed. Sometimes we leave the "pick-up mail" in our mail-boxes with the red flag raised to indicate that, but the messy looking postman/woman does not feel like stopping the truck, it stays there.

Anonymous said...

Well your elected representative from the city is picking his nose and scratching his rear end. When he finishes his daily shore he just "MIGHT" consider that request. In the mean time he's voting for more bike trails in your area. Please re-elect him again, you people deserve that.

rita