Bruce Ellis, owner of Delta Cinema on Third Street, sued the city of Clarksdale and Clarksdale Public Utilities earlier in the year alleging they must pay for damage from a sewer that caused the theater to close.
But the case is raising many questions for the court, including who is responsible for alleged damages.
Delta Cinema has been closed since 2017 and the case is in federal court in Oxford, but Ellis is still looking for answers. At Ellis’ request, Brandon Stuart, an environmental scientist for Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, came to Clarksdale and inspected the sewer system last week.
Ellis alleges CPU or the city of Clarksdale is responsible for the damage, but he is not sure which entity should pay for to repair Delta Cinema.
“Clarksdale Public Utilities says that line, that drain marked sewer, doesn’t belong to them,” Ellis said. “Clarksdale Public Works says it doesn’t belong to them and it belongs to Clarksdale Public Utilities. The two are pointing the finger at each other saying the drain doesn’t belong to either one of them.”
Stuart was not sure what the next step would be at the time he was examining the sewer.
City attorney Melvin Miller is waiting to see how the investigation of the sewer comes out.
“We’re (city and CPU) not necessarily pointing fingers at each other,” Miller said. “The city has looked at the property, but beyond that, we’re in litigation. It has to be down to the experts at this point to get to the bottom of what’s going on. The problem with this particular case is that Mr. Ellis, and understandably so, does not quite know how this happened. Truthfully, on our side, it was being investigated. It was still being investigated, but it’s come to a head. It has been awhile and we understand Mr. Ellis’ frustration.”
Miller said he expects the city, CPU and Ellis to all have engineers examine the property.
CPU general manager Curtis Boschert declined to comment on the sewer issues since there was pending litigation with Ellis.
His only statement was, “I think it’s fair to say that I don’t see where CPU is liable.”
Delta Cinema was the main venue for the Clarksdale Film Festival every January. The festival has not been at the theater since 2017.
Ellis said he chose close the facility without any orders from MDEQ because it was flooded.
