Friday, December 5, 2003

Duncan park still has problems

By LINDSAY BIANCHI
Special to The Citizen

If the walls could talk at Duncan Park, Fulton County may not like what they have to say.

When Fairburn took over the facility they were faced with a daunting task of correcting the park's problems which are still not completed. Aside from a public pool which has sat dormant for 3 years, the main banquet hall received a failing grade on its mold report this month.

The indoor air quality survey conducted by Atlantic Environmental Inc. of Atlanta identified several molds and ruled out the presence of a deadly black mold thought to be growing there. The building remains under lock and key for public health reasons.

Harvey Stokes, property manager for Fairburn, has been busy trying to find a solution to the building's fate.

"It could turn out to be a nice place. The building itself has many functions and I think it is the key to success of the park."

Formerly used as a banquet hall and an after school arts and crafts center, Stokes said the interior basement walls are leaking,creating a continuous puddle in the basement. The basement isn't the only problem.

"You can look in the ceiling and see that they have had roof leaks that I would say have probably gone a while being neglected or repaired."

A quote from Becfor USA of Tucker quoted $169,000 just to get rid of the mold. Add renovation costs to the bill and it looks as if the structure might make better use as a perpetual science project.

"We've had so many other things come up that we really just cant push it to the forefront ahead of everything else we have going." Stokes said. "Realistically, I'm thinking by early spring I will have a plan together to get this building open or to have some kind of decision made about it,” he added.

The Fairburn Police Department has been keeping a close watch on the facility patrolling the park hourly to make sure no one breaks into the hazardous structure.

"We did get a letter from Fulton County saying they were not willing to participate in helping us with the cleanup, but we still haven't given up on it."

     There has been mention of grant money available to address the issue, but other than conjecture, all solutions seem to be just talk right now.