MARYSVILLE, Calif. — The city of Marysville declared a state of emergency Friday after a fire ripped through a historic downtown hotel over the weekend. The fire damage has created a public safety concern and transportation nightmare.
The Marysville Hotel is in danger of collapsing and is now surrounded by a barricade. Marysville police, the fire department and even Caltrans say they’re all out of resources to handle the situation.
“The regional impacts and the unsafe conditions of the hotel have overwhelmed our resources,” said city manager Jim Schaad.
The Marysville Hotel opened for business 98 years ago and once hosted celebrities like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. It closed in the 80s because it wasn’t up to fire standards.
It was purchased years later by the company Urban Smart Growth and — up until recently — was planned to be reopened as an apartment complex.
“It appears the insurance coverage on the building was minimal while I believe the owner, Urban Smart Growth, has more than the adequate resources to do the right thing,” said Schaad. “I am not confident at this point they will.”
But Urban Smart Growth told ABC10 they would like the city to take over the property saying it would be, “the quickest and most efficient way to get the highway open and protect neighboring properties.”
It means the city would have to pay for demolition. In the meantime, multiple businesses around the hotel are closed because they’re in the impact zone if the building were to collapse.
Chris was planning to open The Lighthouse Barber Parlour across the street.
“I was going to (have) a soft opening July 2. Obviously with this happening it’s sad with all this heavy congestion and the chaos… it’s really hurting the business,” said Chris.
Traffic is diverted at Highway 70 for closings from 3-6th Street. In town, the stoplights flash red and traffic is down to a crawl.
The city says it can’t begin to quantify how much constant surveillance by police and the fire department costs. The police chief arrested a man with a knife Wednesday who was inside the crumbling hotel.
“I love this city, we will overcome,” said Chris.
The city is in talks with Cal OES hoping to learn the next steps while waiting for the demolition crews to arrive Monday for a cost estimate and timeframe of when they can work to get things back to normal.
The full statement from Urban Smart Growth’s counsel is below:
“We were devastated to hear about the fire loss and happy to find out no one was injured,” said Dan Katz, the ownership’s counsel. “We have laid out a path forward with the City that we think will be the quickest and most efficient way to get the highway open, protect neighboring properties, and move to the next phase of developing this historic corner of Marysville. We believe the City of Marysville is in the best position to take over the property and get the highway and neighboring businesses back open."
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