Letter to VDT and City Council from Laural Hahlen
Valdosta Project Change
601 N. Lee Street, Valdosta GA 31601
PO Box 1252, Valdosta GA 31603-1252
Phone 229-245-3872 Fax 229-245-3873

October 23, 2003

Dear Editor and Valdosta City Council:

In spite of major financial barriers over the past thirty-plus years, Southside Recreation Center's board of directors, Executive Director Rachel Bradley and her staff have patiently worked miracles. The center has provided invaluable services and educational opportunities that include a variety of much-needed after-school and summer school programs and a very successful alternative program for students who face incarceration when they are suspended from school. Through its struggles, the organization has valiantly held to its ideals and has changed countless lives. While its services are offered freely to Valdosta residents, it has received very little support from the City of Valdosta.
Recently, the property on which the center sits - which is the former city dump and also near a hazardous waste site - has become the center of controversy. The organization contends that the City of Valdosta gave it the property several years ago. Over the years, Southside has taken care of the property, been turned down by the city for assistance in upkeep of the pool, grounds and buildings, and once received a citation from the city when the grass was not mowed.
Missing property deeds have caused some confusion, but the center clearly has been acknowledged as the owner of the property by the annual statements from the Lowndes County tax assessor's office for the past 25 years. A clean-up of the toxic waste left by Atlanta Gas Light's Manufactured Gas Plant, required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Department, was completed in April of this year after negotiations with both Southside and the City of Valdosta resulted in the claim that the City of Valdosta owned the property and was entitled to any compensation that would be given to the owners. It is not clear at this time how much that compensation actually amounted to.
While the City of Valdosta should do more for its residents than give them a partially contaminated former dump, at the very least it should provide the documentation indicating that the site has been in the organization's possession for almost four decades. Please give Southside Recreation Center the respect and support it deserves for making a difference in our community. Southside deserves our full support.
Sincerely,
Laurel Hahlen
Executive Director