City officials were aware in March of structural damage at the city-owned West Coconut Grove building that houses the Barnyard after-school program but waited until August 9 — just days before the school year began — to inform school staff that the facility was unsafe for use.
The Barnyard, a long-term tenant at the city-owned building, located at 3870 Washington Avenue, has scrambled to find temporary space for its 55 children, ages 5 to 11, who attend elementary schools in the Grove .
“The aftermath of closing the Barnyard was overwhelming,” said Silvia Jordan, director for the Barnyard, which has occupied the space since 1982. “You cannot imagine.”
Jordan says she had been aware of a structural inspection at the facility last spring but had little warning of safety concerns until a City of Miami worker arrived last month to post an Unsafe Building Notice outside the building. The worker instructed Jordan and other staff to close up and leave because it was being shut down for emergency repairs that, she later learned, could take at least nine months to complete.
City records show that safety concerns were first raised as early as March 11 when an independent inspector, Gonzalo A. Paz, of the Eastern Engineering Group, issued a report stating that he had found “structural damage that could represent a danger to the structural safety of the building, but with appropriate immediate shoring, the building is safe for its continued use and occupancy.”
Despite the warning the building remained open, and occupied, for another five months.
Shoring up the building was initially planned for earlier this summer, but the drawings for that work took longer to complete than expected; a start date has not been announced. Javier Gonzalez, Coconut Grove constituent liaison for Miami Commissioner 2 Damian Pardo, says the shoring permit is still pending.
Adding to the complications: two different City of Miami departments are involved in the project — the Office of Capital Improvements and the Building Department. The city also is considering a roof replacement on the building, which was originally constructed in the 1920s as a warehouse.
Jordan passed on an offer from the city to move the program temporarily to Elizabeth Virrick Park, about seven blocks away from the Barnyard’s original home.
The offer arrived, Jordan says, after the Barnyard had secured space for the program’s older children at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart on Main Highway. The younger children will attend programs at the nearby Arts for Learning Center. But the moves come at a high cost: The Barnyard, which depends on grants and donations for its operating budget, is now paying $400 a day to bus students to their temporary homes, prompting Jordan to launch a GoFundMe campaign to cover the added expense.
Gonzalez says the city is looking into the possibility of helping with transportation during the repairs.
Despite the disruption, Jordan says parents have been patient and understanding. “They were receptive to the change and agreeable to taking the children to where we want to take them,” she said.
