If you climb to the top story of the Brownsville Housing Authority's High Rise on St. Charles Street, the only way you can know where the Southmost area is located by looking east and seeing the Public Utility Board's #4 Water Storage Tower off in the distance.
There are literally no other high buildings or landmarks to determine the location of the area.
In fact, many residents give directions based on "la tinaja de agua"to guide people to the barrio. The 1.0MG 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."
Well, more than 12 months have passed, of course, but since that time, the PUB has issued Requests For Qualifications (RFQs) to demolition firms and have 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 has not been in use for more than a year now.
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 of "overflow flap valve does not function properly, there are holes in roof, pinhole leaks due to corrosion damage, and the top hatch is not locked."
The streets (Southmost and Lima) will not be closed and the demolition will be contained in the fend 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.