Now I suspect it had been leaking, because it was cracked, for a long time. Way back in 1978, the Fan District Softball League played some of its scheduled games on a sloped softball field on that was then on top of the same landfill. I remember that whenever it rained heavily, right field was a swamp. It was a swamp that smelled bad. Very bad.

We were told it was because of the landfill. For softball players that explanation floated, because all we cared about was whether we could play on the field. Looking back on it, now I’m guessing we were smelling raw sewage leaking from the already cracked pipe that collapsed in 2006.

The City has NOT done right for our neighborhod. They should be held accountable.

The 30-40 feet of water was in 2006 (albeit several times). After they put in the huge pumps it only got up to 20 feet once – when the guy who had the ‘keys’ to start the pumps was out of town during a weekend storm.

During Gaston, a sewer line running underneath the park cracked, and sewage damaged large sections of the park, including the tennis courts. Park officials will repair the tennis courts and the computers after they receive an insurance settlement. Tennis court repairs alone will cost $80,000, Everson said.

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NORTH SIDE CENTER REOPENED THE BATTERY PARK SITE HAD SUSTAINED DAMAGE FROM GASTON FLOODING

By Melanie Mayhew
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Friday, January 21, 2005

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More than four months after flooding damaged Battery Park, the North Side park’s community center has reopened for visitors.

The Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities closed the community center in the wake of Tropical Storm Gaston’s remnants, which flooded Battery Park and caused more than $2 million in damages to 40 sites in the park system, said Christy Everson, marketing and public relations specialist for the department. Park officials quietly reopened the community center this month; they predicted that the surrounding park would open for the spring and summer months, Everson said.

“Gaston really hurt us,” she said. “It did a lot of extensive damage.”

During Gaston, floodwaters filled the basement of the community center, damaging all of the computers that officials had recently ordered for a new computer lab. Flooding also destroyed the center’s furnace, said Dinesh Tiwari, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.

“The entire park was completely flooded by Gaston, and the community center was just one of the numerous park properties heavily damaged by the storm,” Tiwari said. We had to refurbish the furnace before we could reopen the center, and work is still being done on the park.”

During Gaston, a sewer line running underneath the park cracked, and sewage damaged large sections of the park, including the tennis courts. Park officials will repair the tennis courts and the computers after they receive an insurance settlement. Tennis court repairs alone will cost $80,000, Everson said.

The center will continue to offer youth athletic programs, arts and crafts, a book club and dance classes. The park’s swimming pool will open for the summer months, said Walter Brown, the center’s acting supervisor.

“The Battery Park Community Center traditionally has been a part of the neighborhood,” he said, “so it will be good to get back to serving our citizens there and meeting the community’s needs.”