May 4 – Neighborhood opposition leads Decatur City Council to deny a $50,000 grant to the Austinville Park Fitness Court.
The board voted 3-1 this week to deny the grant from the National Fitness Campaign and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Carlton McMasters Council member cast the only vote to accept the grant, and Council Chairman Jacob Ladner was absent from Monday’s meeting.
The Fitness Court is a 38-foot by 38-foot outdoor gym network that features seven circuit exercise areas. The National Fitness Campaign is building gyms across the country.
Austinville Park, located at the corner of Lamar Street and Spring Avenue Southwest, is located in the Konselman Hunter Paper District. He said 11 people who live in the Austinville area called him on Monday to express their opposition to putting a fitness field in the park.
They want swings, carousels, and slides,” Bieber said.
Bieber said the gym is “awesome. It’s not kid friendly. I can tell you I don’t think this is the area for it.”
Councilman Billy Jackson said Bieber said that residents next door who oppose fitness changed his vote.
“I had every intention of supporting this,” Jackson said. “We were elected as an extension of our constituents, and we have to weigh what they say they want in our communities and counties.”
Council member Kyle Pike joined Jackson and Bieber in voting to reject the grant.
Jackson said he views this project the same way he views the rezoning of property on southwest Cardale Street to allow for a country house project opposed by its neighbors. He was the only councilman who voted against the zoning change.
“From my point of view, it’s unfortunate that we might lose out on a good project, but we are servants of a dictator and that’s something our residents don’t want,” Jackson said.
Allen Stover, city director of community development, and Parks and Recreation Director Jason Lake selected the site in collaboration with the National Fitness Campaign (NFC).
Stover said NFC searched two or three locations in the city. The group initially favored Wilson Morgan Park, but Stuffer said space may not be available there as the city plans to build a recreation center in the park.
Stover said Austinville Park was the NFC’s second choice because it’s not far from Wilson Morgan and there are sidewalks that connect the two parks. He said Austinville Park suited the city’s preferences and the $117,000 required as the grant match was available for that location from the Federal Community Development Grant funds the city receives annually.
CDBG is a federal program that provides funding intended to improve low-income areas, and Austinville is now eligible to use this funding. The city received $489,000 in CDBG money in 2021 and spent $103,000 in Austinville Park to remove tennis courts and add landscaping.
Stover said the CDBG funds allow the city to avoid using its general fund budget to obtain matching funds for an exercise grant.
“We had the money in the budget, and with due diligence, we thought it was a good location,” Stover said.
The garden originally had two sets of hammocks, a slide and a whirlpool, which Stover said they removed because they were in poor condition. They have removed the tennis courts because they were not in use and neighbors at a community meeting said they would prefer some green space.
Stover said residents didn’t say anything at the time about their desire for playground equipment. He said he thinks there is room for playground equipment and a fitness facility in the 2.29-acre park, but that they’re likely missing out on green space.
Mayor Tab Bolling said he thought the fitness grant would be positive news, and McMasters said he “hated seeing us lose this opportunity,” especially after Stover said Decatur would be one of the first Alabama cities to get a gym.
“That would give us another benefit that few other societies have,” McMasters said. “And after hearing that there is space for both the stadium and the fitness area, I think it would be a mistake to decline this grant.”
Jackson asked if the grant was tied to Austinville Park or if they could choose an alternative site, and city attorney general Hermann Marx suggested they could vote to accept the grant until another site was chosen.
However, Lake and Stoffer agreed that the board should reject the grant if they did not like the site. Lake said there is no guarantee that the city will receive the grant a second time.
“We need to tell them something,” Lake said.
Stover said he believes the grant will not be viewed negatively by NFC and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
“We are just going to start the (grant application) process over in a different location,” Stover said.
Pike suggested that the city might need to pay for the project out of its general fund and put it in a different location.
“The fitness room is great, but Austinville Park may not be the right location, especially with Mr. Pepper and his district so clearly opposed to it,” Pike said.
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