McComb city officials are considering rescinding earlier action that called for the demolition of the Martin Luther King gym in Burglund after Selectwoman Tammy Witherspoon convinced the city board to commit part of a recent $2 million bond issue to improve the condemned structure.
The city built the gym in 1978 and condemned it in 2009. Witherspoon and others have long called for its repair, but the city has fallen short of funding the work.
Late last month, the city passed a resolution to issue $2 million in general obligation bonds. The bulk of the funding would go to expedite cash flow for the construction of a new east McComb fire station, as well as street improvements and the installation of a traffic light at the intersection of Anna Drive and Delaware Avenue, and street improvements at the intersection of Presley Boulevard and Parklane Road.
At the time, Witherspoon got the board to amend the resolution to state that remaining funds from the bond issue would go to working on the gym.
However, with three big projects coming out of the single bond issue, it remains to be seen how much, if any, money will be left over for the gym.
On Tuesday, the board discussed scrapping earlier plans to demolish the facility at a cost of $60,000.
Discussion about the gym surfaced when recreation department director Joseph Parker gave an update on work being done at parks and equipment purchases being made through $600,000 in funding earmarked for a park improvement plan.
“Didn’t we set aside $60,000 of those funds to demolish the gym?” Witherspoon asked Parker.
“Yes, after the board approved to demolish it,” Parker said.
“Mayor,” Witherspoon said, “I want to make a motion to use that $60,000 towards the refurbishment of the MLK Gym.”
Parker reminded board members of the gym’s condemned status.
“I have had structural engineers say that if we stripped it down to the bare bones — the slab, the steel frame and the cover — it would make a safe covering,” Parker said.
But he said he did not know how much that would cost.
Witherspoon asked about earlier plans for the gym that had been presented to the board before, and Parker said he had presented two options — saving the existing structure and adding improvements to the tune of $650,000 or spending $980,000 to tear the gym down and build a new one.
Selectman Tommy McKenzie said he agreed that the neighborhood should have a gym, but he couldn’t support refurbishing the structure as it stands now.
“I would not refurbish a structurally unsound building,” said McKenzie, a construction engineer. “If we move on it, we need to just build a new gym. My thing is how do we provide a gym and a successful program? That’s been the problem.”
