City businesses, residents pick up pieces
Anthony Terry, a resident of 15 N. Main St., was in the process of moving out of the building. He woke up Wednesday morning, went up the street for bread and found out on the walk back part of the building had collapsed.
Steven Layton is the owner of Hair We Go barbershop, which was on the first floor of the building at 15 N. Main St.
Resident Terri Edwards took this photo of water damage and cracks on an upper level of the building at 15 N. Main St. Monday, two days before part of the building came crashing down.
Residents and businesses in the block of North Main Street that saw a building partially collapse Wednesday were picking up the pieces Thursday.
Kayla Crouch had lived in her fourth-floor apartment at 15 N. Main St. with her mother, Terri Edwards, for almost a year. She never paid much attention to the cracks in the walls or the bathroom window, but they were always there. It was when the staircase shifted she finally decided to inform the landlord, but she said nothing was ever done.
Edwards was in the apartment the night before it collapsed. She had warned Crouch before going to work at 6 a.m. to be aware of the leaking ceiling above their apartment’s doorway. When Crouch returned to the apartment in the morning, the street was blocked off by fire trucks, and she was not permitted to enter the building.
She is now living with her two children, a 5-month-old and a 4-year-old, and her mother at the George Washington Hotel. She has received some assistance from the Red Cross, but is unsure of what to do in the future. She has established a GoFundMe on her Facebook account, where she has received some support.
Crouch said she has yet to hear from her landlord, Mark Russo.
“It makes me mad because all this happened because of him, and he can’t even apologize or anything. Every time we told him something was wrong, he never fixed it.”
Russo said Wednesday he had been in compliance with building ordinances and had repaired a crack in a wall of the building.
Crouch said her 4-year-old is aware she does not have a home anymore and is upset she cannot play with her toys from the apartment.
Anthony Richard Terry stepped out of his apartment in the morning to buy some bread down the street. He returned only to notice his apartment building was blocked off by the police and fire departments. He then learned his apartment had collapsed.
“I ain’t got nothing left,” Terry said Thursday.
Terry said he would frequently ask the landlord to address various issues within the apartment, but they would always go unfixed.
Fortunately for Terry, he was in the process of moving out of the apartment and currently has a place to stay. He received some money from the Red Cross.
On Thursday, the block remained closed to traffic, with most businesses taking the restriction in stride, despite plenty of uncertainty.
At Popcorn Willy at 20 N. Main St., one of downtown’s popular lunch stops, owner Mark Buxton said the restaurant saw the normal flow of walk-in customers Wednesday, but he’s not sure what will happen when demolition begins across the street from his business.
“So far, today’s been good,” Buxton said around 11 a.m. Thursday. “We’ll see what happens when they start ripping it down.”
A couple of doors down from Popcorn Willy, Ed Belfoure, co-owner of Red Pump Spirits distillery, said he had only two walk-in customers after the block was closed to traffic Wednesday morning.
On Thursday, Belfoure, like Buxton, was uncertain how business will be going forward.
“We also know there’s not much you can do about it,” he said. “You have to gut it out.”
Both owners noted their businesses can be accessed from municipal and other parking at the rear of their buildings, which border Shaffer Avenue.
Two other businesses were dealing with the more direct impact of the building’s partial collapse.
Steven Layton, proprietor of Hair We Go barbershop, located on the ground floor of 15 N. Main St., said Thursday his business was a total loss.
Sitting in front of Popcorn Willy’s, Layton, who had two employees, said he was trying to remain optimistic.
“We’re going to be out of business for a while, but hopefully we can start up soon,” he said, explaining he was looking to lease another space downtown.
“I think there are bigger, better things coming our way. We gotta turn the negative things into positives.”
Not far from where Layton spoke to a reporter, Nancy Ogburn and Lisa Aprea, who with Jim Martin are owners of Chicco Baccello, were surveying their future space on the first floor of 3 N. Main St., which abuts 15 N. Main.
Chicco Baccello was in the process of being moved from its current location at 239 S. Main, but Wednesday’s events – which included rescue workers knocking a hole in the wall on the first floor of their future shop space to reach a woman who was trapped next door – left their plans in limbo.
“We really don’t know anything right now,” Ogburn said, adding the business has a lease at its current location until early 2019.
“We’re still fully functional at South Main Street,” she said.
Aprea said the business was waiting for occupancy permits from the city and had some plumbing and electrical work done at the new address.
“I guess time will tell when they get the OK to demolish what’s going to happen in our space,” Aprea said.
An employee of Studio Three Tattoo, which was located on the second floor of 3 N. Main St., said through social media Thursday the parlor had temporarily relocated to Suite 106, 382 W. Chestnut St.
Staff writer Nate Doughty contributed to this report.