Berlin Indefinitely Closes Park Over Spill Cleanup Costs

BERLIN – Town officials agreed to close Heron Park indefinitely rather than spend $55,000 more on cleanup costs.

At Monday’s meeting of the Berlin Town Council, officials voted 3-1, with Councilman Dean Burrell opposed and Councilman Troy Purnell absent, to close the park. Though the cleanup of the chemical spill that occurred at the property has been completed, debris from the remaining buildings at the former poultry processing plant still needs to be removed.

“It seems like there’s a lot of obstacles there that could cause some harm,” Councilman Zack Tyndall said.

According to Mayor Gee Williams, roughly $75,000 in demolition work had been completed at the park when June’s chemical spill occurred. Since then, the town has spent $260,578 on spill cleanup and Williams expects final costs to reach $283,000. Nevertheless, he asked the council Monday to consider spending an additional $55,000 with Goody Hill Groundworks to have the various piles of debris and dilapidated small buildings on the site removed. He said the town had gotten pricing from Goody Hill because the company had a good history of working with the town.

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