Simmons demolishes homes to make way for new parking area

DECATUR -- The growing Simmons' plant in Decatur found itself in need of an additional parking area to meet the demands of a swelling employee population.

Several months ago, Simmons purchased five tracts of land on Burton Street behind its processing plant on Second St. Simmons' plan was to remove the houses and build a new parking lot.

During the August city council meeting, Simmons requested that Burton St. be permanently closed. The council decided to delay action on this matter until the Sept. 14 meeting.

The houses were deemed uninhabitable, allowing Simmons to hire a demolition crew to take all five houses down. The removal began Sept. 9 and took two days to complete.

Now Simmons has to wait for the city to permanently close the street before it can complete its parking lot project. Once completed, employees will have additional places to park to help eliminate congestion at Simmons' other parking area near Charley Street.