Community leaders push for new Zone 6 precinct, citing mold and unsafe conditions

Police officers call for updated Atlanta prescient

Some Atlanta community leaders have now called for a new police precinct building. The safety leaders say the current facility in police Precinct Zone 6 in East Atlanta is substandard, outdated, and has been remediated for mold. They say they took their pleas to Mayor Andre Dickens a couple of months ago.

ATLANTA - Some Atlanta community leaders have now called for a new police precinct building. 

The safety leaders say the current facility in police Precinct Zone 6 in East Atlanta is substandard, outdated, and has been remediated for mold. 

They say they took their pleas to Mayor Andre Dickens a couple of months ago.

What they're saying:

"They put their lives on the line every day for all of us," said Phyllis Wingo, the security chair for the Morningside-Lenox Park Association. She says the officers who protect and serve us every day deserve a clean, safe and secure precinct.

That's why she and leaders from 24 other neighborhoods, like Old Fourth Ward, Candler Park, Poncey-Highland and Sweet Auburn, reached out to Mayor Andre Dickens with their concerns.

"We sent a letter to the mayor and council to say these officers put their lives on the line every day to protect thousands of residents and businesses across nearly 25 neighborhoods, and they deserve a precinct that is safe, clean and secure and is designed for 21st-century policing," Mrs. Phyllis Wingo said.

When Wingo and others saw the substandard condition many of the walls and molding were in, they raised more than $4,000 to spackle, repaint, purchase a roll call table and shelving for officers’ water bottles.

She said when black mold resurfaced for the second time earlier this year, that was the breaking point.

"Last year there was mold on the main level of the facility and this year it was found in the basement. Safety because of the mold. Who wants to work in an environment where there is mold remediation two years in a row?"

Israel Baptist Church owns the building. The senior pastor tells FOX 5 the facility is 70 years old and has been leased to the city for 30 years.

Organizers claim Mayor Dickens made a promise he has not kept.

"He said he would look at the situation. He would come back with a set of recommendations and a plan of action," Wingo said. "That was two months ago."

The other side:

FOX 5 reached out to the mayor’s office, and we are still waiting for a response.