To The Editor:
On May 20, 2014, Dillon Historic School Advocacy (DHSA) met with the Dillon County Board of Education to ask specific questions about the Board barring all access to the auditorium of the former J.V. Martin Junior High School. Before leaving that meeting, Chairman Schafer invited DHSA members to submit other questions, if any, and the Board would answer. I am responding to that invitation.
In your published Public Notice, you declared that the J.V. Martin facility is, almost in its entirety, ‘unfit and unsafe’ and that gaining access to the building is now illegal. Perhaps then you can explain why the gymnasium is still being used on a regular basis. The lights are on and cars are parked outside on many evenings. It appears that only the auditorium is affected by the Public Notice.
One of the reasons cited for closing the auditorium to the public was the age of the building. Just to refresh memories, the gymnasium and the auditorium were new construction in 1936. If age is the contributing factor for unfit and unsafe conditions, shouldn’t it be applied to both the “old” auditorium and the “old” gym?
For some reason the gym was never allowed to fall into the disrepair, abuse and disrespect that the auditorium suffered. A perfectly wonderful part of the school became a dumping ground for trash, obsolete files, furniture and discarded debris. Our question: Why was the decision made to stop maintaining the auditorium?
The county attorney made the statement that the board could not accept the responsibility or the liability of an injury that might occur to anyone while inside the auditorium. What happens if someone is injured while using the gym? You are requiring a certificate of occupancy before the auditorium can be entered again. Was that required before the gym could be used? Do those using the gym even know that almost the entire JVM School is posted? There are no signs, and the notice appeared only once in The Herald.
We don’t want the gym to be off limits to anyone. It serves a community need, and we’re in favor of that. We just want consideration and fair treatment in our quest to renovate the auditorium, which, by the way, will also serve the community.
Sincerely,
Mary Miller
361 W. Countryside
Dillon, SC 29536
