LITTLE FLOCK, Ark. — After severe weather blew through Benton County on May 26, Little Flock and many of its city buildings have been destroyed, and the community is now picking up the pieces.
Little Flock City Hall was practically ripped in half. Since then, Mayor Jeff Van Sickler says he has been working to find a way forward.
“There's quite a bit of damage. City hall has been destroyed, damage was done to our fire department building and street department building. All of our police cars incurred some sort of damage, a couple of our fire trucks, and some of our street department vehicles as well," Van Sickler said.
The building is now unusable, so Van Sickler says they will have to rebuild from scratch.
“The current plan is to go ahead and tear down the rest of this building, probably sometime here soon," the mayor said.
However, the city plans to keep the building in the same, as Van Sickler believes this is the best location.
“This is the heart of where it's been. I mean, this dates all the way back to the 70s, when the city was incorporated. So, you know, this is where people expect city hall to be, and this is, quite frankly, it's a property that we own,” Van Sickler said.
All city officials have been temporarily working next door at the Little Flock fire station, but the mayor hopes that won't last too much longer.
“I anticipate that we should have the ground area over here prepped and ready within another week's time, and then I don't know how long it'll take to get the trailer here, so probably within the next two weeks, we'll have the temporary office trailer set and ready," Van Sickler explained.
The mayor says he's grateful for all the support he's had during the tough time.
“An outpouring of calls from citizens, local cities, elected officials at both state and federal level. So it's been, it's been a challenge, but I felt like I've had plenty of support, and the employees are handling it in stride," Van Sickler said.
Van Sickler does encourage citizens to be on the lookout for scammers.
“Be wary of scams. I've said it a couple of times on social media posts. People are being quoted outrageous numbers to do tree debris cleanup on properties. Just make sure that you get price quotes from multiple sources. Make sure that you sign a contract and that the contract states exactly what you expect to be done,” Van Sickler said.
Van Sickler tells 5NEWS that he expects the new building and the rest of the cleanup to cost north of $600,000, but he does believe the town will be fully reimbursed.
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