Haight calls move secretive, says Panter didn’t have authority
Blue Ridge City Councilman Mike Panter chained up the downtown park playground Wednesday, October 21, restricting access to visitors, without council approval.
“I felt like I could not put the kids at risk over the next three or four weeks even though everybody wants it to stay open,” he said. “I just didn’t feel like I could do that, and I made the decision to close it.
“I sent out an email. I slept on it, and I did not feel like I could put the city at risk any longer.”
Panter has explained on several occasions that when they plowed the mulch up several weeks ago, some places were as hard as concrete.
“It’s closed because I’ve been able to verify that over the last three and a half years, mulch was supposed to be added probably six to eight inches every six months, and the park was supposed to be inspected on an annual basis, and none of that has been done,” Panter said.
As to why he hasn’t closed it sooner since he’s known about it not complying with guidelines, he said, “COVID-19 came along, and we closed the park, and I really started looking at that park.”
During a meeting October 20, Panter said, “I known I was being pushed to open up the park during COVID-19 when it started. And I kept pushing it off for a couple reasons, but I didn’t basically talk about the second reason because I wasn’t sure. I had to get other people in here to look to see if we were at code or not.”
Other council members are not happy with the abrupt decision.
“That was on the agenda, and then he tabled it, and less than 12 hours later, he and Donna (Mayor Whitener) had it, had chains over the entrance, and I was unaware until I walked down there with my daughter,” Councilwoman Rhonda Haight said Thursday, October 22.
“To abruptly shut the park without even giving an announcement when it was on the agenda is very secretive to me.”
When asked if Panter had the authority to close the park on his own, Haight said he did not.
In the email Panter sent after the meeting, he stated that he was “considering closing the park” to which Haight said it needs to be on the agenda for the next meeting, and she never heard back, she said.
On the contrary, Panter said he had only received a response from one person, and they had agreed.
“As far as I’m concerned, if the other council members would like to reopen it without it meeting code and the work being done, they can go do that, but I do not wanna have the liability with me being over the park.”
Panter stressed that no one in the city, including former councilman Ken Gaddis, knew of the responsibilities associated with park upkeep until recently.
“Ms. Arp evidently did not give any instructions to anybody at the city when she left about what the requirements were,” Panter said.
“We’ve already started reworking the ball field playground over at the city pool, and we’re actually going to start construction as early as Monday removing all of the mulch out of the current facility downtown and moving it to the city park.”
After having an inspector come out to the park Saturday, October 24, Panter was advised that the small children’s side of the playground was safe to reopen as the slide is not as tall as the other.