“I make a motion to suspend all public activity in the park building other than the senior lunch pending a review of the building by the county health inspector,” said Council member David Walker after coming out of executive session at the Locust City Council April meeting Thursday evening.

During the parks period of the meeting, Tate Osborne, Parks and Recreation supervisor, informed the council of a structural engineering report that had been made on the Locust Community Building citing structural damage, beetle infestations in the ceiling, drainage issues, and flooring problems to name a few. The damage caused by the beetles cannot be determined fully, said Osborne, until the ceiling is taken down. The council will ask the Stanly County Building Inspection Department to inspect the building for further information on the safety and liability of allowing continued use in the current conditions.

Osborne told the council there may be “real problems” if events had more than 30 people, in concentrated spots, in attendance but said it was hard to determine the problem’s expanse.

“Right decisions are seldom easy,” said city administrator Tim Fesperman. “We don’t have a choice.”

“If the building inspector comes back with a different answer, we will readdress,” said Walker.

“We are in a dilemma because people depend on that for food,” added Fesperman citing the senior lunch program hosted at the community building. The council discussed alternate ways to temporarily house the afternoon senior lunches until a more permanent situation could be attained, but no official decisions were made at the meeting.

The council meeting has been recessed until Wednesday, April 24 at 7pm for a budget meeting.

For more information and details on the council meeting, pick up next week’s copy of the Weekly Post.