History Tumbles Down
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
The iconic bathhouse sitting in front of the former South City Park swimming pool was no match for an excavator that clawed and tore its roof and walls Wednesday morning as the Opelousas city administration moved forward with plans for a $4.6 million community center located at the site.
By noon the city-owned cinder block building dedicated by state and city officials along with the pool in 1939, was mostly a memory, as rubble and other debris were placed in piles.
Land surveyors then began their jobs of mapping out the dimensions for the new community center.
It’s uncertain when construction will begin on the project, which will be built in front of the bathhouse and pool complex, whose demolition process was estimated to cost at least $500,000.
The removal of the bathhouse is the second federally-funded WPA project of the Franklin Roosevelt administration to be destroyed at South City Park.
Over a decade ago, the WPA-constructed civic center was destroyed by a fire. The city received insurance compensation for the loss of the civic center, but the structure was never rebuilt.
So far the pool demolition effort has destroyed a section of the park walking trail, which now bears a rock surface. It is unclear whether the city intends to resurface the walking trail as part of the community center project.
As the heavy equipment was knocking down the building, city workers were battling a water issue that flooded much of the boulevard.
Citizen Raises Concerns
Opelousas citizen Steve Picou notified St. Landry Now.com and state and local officials on Wednesday about what he sees as environmental concerns and quality control problems associated with the demolition process.
In his letter to the website, Picou raised concerns that city officials allegedly neglected to conduct an environmental review for the demolition, since there may have been asbestos particles located within the mortar blocks.
If an environmental review was conducted, wrote Picou, it was never presented to the public.
Asbestos dust may have been released into the air as the demolition proceeded, Picou also wrote.
Since the building was of historic value, Picou said no historic review for the demolition was apparently done or presented to the public.
Also Picou questioned the impact of the walking trail destruction caused by the demolition.
