Leaders questioned on Augusta boy's death, park safety

Four months ago, 12-year-old Melquan Robinson died after he was electrocuted at Fleming Park. On Friday, residents gathered at the Bernie Ward Community Center to ask commissioners how the city will prevent future accidents from occurring.

About two dozen people were present at the meeting, which invited community members to step forward and ask Mayor Hardie Davis and several commissioners questions about the park's safety.

Pastor Angela Harden of First Dayspring Baptist organized the town hall meeting with the Rev. Willie Rivers, who was absent because of an illness. Harden said she invited city leaders to attend so the public could get answers.

"We want answers and we want peace concerning this, and right now there is no peace because we don’t know what happened to Melquan. His family doesn’t know," Harden said. "They deserve that, and we deserve that."

Though commissioners were not able to tell the public what experts found during an investigation after Melquan's death because of pending litigation, Augusta Administrator Janice Jackson said the city has turned off power for Fleming Park.

Jackson also said the commission has put together a policy and procedure subcommittee that will be hearing recommendations about how to improve safety throughout the park system. One of the options to improve safety includes hiring a trained expert to look at underground wiring every year.

However, with about 60 public parks and facilities, Jackson said taxpayers should keep in mind that the inspections would likely be expensive.

"We’re going to have to seriously talk about doing an overhaul of a number of facilities, and it’s not going to come cheap, but I hope it gives you some comfort to know that we are thinking forward as we move forward over the next 12 months," Jackson said.

Though the Augusta Recreation and Parks Department conducts a basic safety inspection every year, Jackson said that inspection is only surface level, looking at things such as trip hazards.

"All of us at this table have talked about completely overhauling our safety program," Jackson said. "We understand that it’s necessary for us to do that. This incident has caused us unfortunately to rethink everything about how we’ve done this business, and we have put our staff to work to fix the immediate concerns."

Davis said the city began immediate assessments on the 12 facilities with the highest use in October, which includes Fleming Park. He said that when the park was built in 1978, requirements for electrical power systems were different.

"What we now know is that when you’re looking at high-voltage systems, how we look at those systems has to be different, so we’ve got to expand the scope of our annual inspections, particularly when you’ve got lighting systems that we have at the different ballparks and facilities," Davis said.

From an electrical perspective, Davis said the city has begun putting together a checklist of how to address the needs of facilities in Augusta.

Several members of Melquan's family were also present at the meeting. Tina Robinson, Melquan's grandmother, said that when it comes to protecting children at the parks, money shouldn't be an object.

"Spend the money if that's what it takes to save a life," Robinson said.

Commissioners at the town hall included Sammie Sias for District 4, Johnny Few for District 5, Ben Hasan for District 6, William Fennoy for District 1 and Marion Williams for District 9.