Grants awarded to study Sinclair smokestack

Two grants awarded to the city's Historic Preservation Commission on a fast pace will allow an expert examination of the century-old Sinclair smokestack.

Late last month, the City Council told the commission it needed to act quickly to find funds to study the smokestack at the fire-damaged former meatpacking plant, 1600 Third St. SE. The council is readying to award a demolition contract for the site.

Commission Chairwoman Maura Pilcher said Tuesday that the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the commission a $3,000 emergency grant. Pilcher had just sent in the application Monday.

The commission also received a $2,000 grant from Silos & Smokestacks, a 37-county National Heritage Area in northeast Iowa that has no smokestacks in its historic sites.

Pilcher said a matching grant from a local corporation will result in the $10,000 estimated to be needed for an expert study. Company officials have so far asked to remain anonymous because the project is not typical for them, she said.

Pilcher is taking the next step to find professionals with expertise in historic masonry who can determine if the 165-foot-tall smokestack can be preserved, and provide cost estimates for stabilizing and preservation.

“Only by this kind of study will we know if it's doable,” Pilcher said.

Twelve Sinclair structures, including the smokestack, are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

After two fires last year at the plant, city workers declared the brick smokestack an imminent threat.

Greg Eyerly, the city's flood-recovery director, has said the smokestack has 2- to 3-inch cracks and is noticeably leaning.

Former plant employees said the cracks have been in the smokestack for decades and that steel bands were placed around the structure years ago to stabilize it.

At the commission's meeting last week, Eyerly noted there are “varying opinions” on whether the smokestack is listing.

Stabilizing the smokestack has been estimated at $60,000. Preservation costs, which would be privately funded, are unknown.