Board votes to demolish vandalized clubhouse

By Randy Bell

The City of Clinton is tearing down a neighborhood clubhouse where Christmas parties were once held and other special occasions were celebrated, because the building has become an eyesore and a target for vandals.

“It was a very nice clubhouse,” said Heyward Bell, president of the Easthaven Homeowners Association, who’s lived in the Patio Place neighborhood for thirty years. As an architect, he admires the building’s design; but, over the years as people moved into and out of the neighborhood, it wasn’t used as often, and the clubhouse and adjoining swimming pool became difficult to maintain.

“It just got to be overwhelming for one person to take care of this,” Bell said.

Then, the vandals showed up.

“I do not understand the mentality of somebody who would come in and do this,” he said, as he walked past smashed windows and holes that have been kicked into the clubhouse walls. And he said the vandalism continues.

“Things have happened since I’ve been over here last. The doors have been knocked out.”

About four years ago, Bell set out on a mission to get some help from the City. Initially, the response was encouraging.

“What they wanted to do was to take the property and turn it into a park.”

But there were cost concerns, and nothing was done – until now.

The Board of Aldermen voted at their April 5 meeting to demolish the building and fill the pool with dirt.

“Whatever cost [there is], they’ll put a lien against the property [to pay for the cost],” Bell said. “This is the first thing that we’ve got to do. There are other issues and problems down the road, but we can solve this one pretty quickly. It’s actually going to be more economical for the City to do it, because they’ve got the dirt, the manpower and the machinery to do this.”
Bell would also like to see the clubhouse parking lot torn up and removed, because it attracts people who engage in “extracurricular activities.”

At the Board meeting where the demolition was approved, Alderwoman Ricki Garrett said it’s up to the City to make sure that each neighborhood in Clinton is livable and attractive. She said it’s important that older neighborhoods get the attention they need.

Garrett said, “The city is only as good as its neighborhoods.”