Neighbor proves quiet champion for Providence Park

from Milton Herald - April 27, 2023

CADILLAC JACK MY SECOND

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — A little contamination wasn’t going to stop Charlie Lancelot from doing his daily run throughout Providence Park and maintaining its trails.

Lancelot moved to a house within a stone’s throw of Providence Park in 1995. When he relocated for work, he wanted a place nearby where he could run every day.

The 42-acre park was more active at that time, and all the trails were wooded. There was a picnic ground where families could rent space. Boy Scouts would camp at the park — Lancelot’s dog used to go into their tents on Sunday morning and rattle them. There was canoeing, and like today, fishing on Providence Lake.

Rappelers would also climb the quarry’s tall sides, the same quarry once used as a dumping ground for General Motors. The company had an automotive painting facility in Doraville, Lancelot said, and its waste lay at the bottom of the quarry.

The dumping stopped some years before Fulton County took over the park, Lancelot said. But remnants, like paint cans, were still visible and were a cause for concern. Lancelot and neighbors finally got a hold of county officials to address the issue.

“Largely, there wasn’t much they could do, and there was nothing that they did do,” Lancelot said.

Thus, “Friends of Providence Park” was formed — a group of volunteers that included Lancelot and his wife — who took it upon themselves to clean up the mess. Lancelot recalled how a rusty paint can once left a nasty gash on his neighbor’s dog.

Eventually, a whistleblower flagged the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, he said. Chemical cleanup began around 2001, which closed the park. The area was covered in sampling stations.

While the City of Milton incorporated in 2006, it had to wait nine years to acquire the property. All that time, the park remained closed — but not to Lancelot.

He and his gardener, alone, would trespass into the park wielding a chainsaw, to cut down dead trees infested with pine borers and keep the trails clear. Lancelot even made his own trail in one section of the park, which still exists and connects to the paved .05-mile loop.

“I must have spent thousands and 14 years keeping these trails clear,” Lancelot said.

But he also read over the shoulder of the folks doing the clean-up. The EPD flushed the soil for a number of years, he said, but the department had a tough time getting rid of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons — a carcinogen that tends to hang onto the dirt.

Holding a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton, Lancelot would check chemical levels, an EPD page of numbers detailing substances in milligrams per milliliter.

Running for life

“Are you a runner?” Lancelot asked. He thought about making a run through the park trails as a prerequisite for an interview.

He turned 82 years old that day, April

20. He just finished a 10K at Notre Dame the Saturday before, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1962. He was the oldest participant in the race, by 18 years, and was stuck inside the 60-64 age bracket because brackets didn’t go higher than that.

When he’s not running, Lancelot plays the piano and organ for a Hispanic ministry in Cumming. He’s also the director of music there. “Bilingual since birth,” Lancelot was born in New York City to a Spanish mom. He caught a flight the same day as the race to make it back in time to 2 p.m. Sunday mass.

He’s a busy guy, and it keeps him young.

Now and then, at the races, a younger participant will pass him and say he’s an inspiration — which is a little frustrating.

“I don’t want to be an inspiration,” Lancelot griped. “I wanna win!”

He placed fourth in the Notre Dame race but was placing first and second up until he hit his 80s.

Lancelot started running when he was 47. He was in bad health, with blood pressure and cholesterol through the roof, and he certainly didn’t want to take medication known to destroy the liver. He kept the pill bottles on the shelf. Running and some changes to his diet were all he needed.

He’s been an avid runner ever since. Lancelot goes for a run every day at Providence Park, sometimes taking one to two of his three dogs with him. The brooks cool them off afterward. Before Milton opened the park in 2016, Lancelot said he and his gardener would construct dams on some of the streams to create a pool for his dogs.

Today’s Providence Park

In a nearly two-hour tour, Lancelot described what the park used to be like and would occasionally pause to admire some of its natural beauty.

Since Milton bought the park from the

Garage Sales

See more garage sales in the classifieds county, it has made major improvements. The city planned to spend more than $3.5 million in its Phase I of upgrades, according to the park’s master plan drafted in 2018.

The phase involved demolishing existing structures. Other items included necessary infrastructure, like parking and stormwater management, wetland improvement and an updated trail system.

Lancelot described how the city moved the earth to raise the ground for the ADAaccessible, paved trail. After noticing a toddler walking down the trail all on her own, Lancelot remarked on its value.

“That’s what you couldn’t see back before [the city] built a paved trail,” he said.

Other features in Phase I included a lake deck. Today, visitors can walk onto a pier, spacious and modern and sturdy. Bathrooms were recently installed as well, a feature Milton Mayor Peyton Jamison proclaimed in his State of the City Address — “no more porta-potties.”

Some features have not yet been implemented. The master plan’s Phase II includes expanded parking, a quarry overlook and a performance space, a nature center and lawn area, lake dredging, a wetland boardwalk and a camping area. Lancelot said there will also be more trail resurfacing.

Lancelot, of course, doesn’t do maintenance anymore. But he stays in touch with Milton Parks and Recreation Director Tom McKlveen. Lancelot said he talks to McKlveen at least every couple of weeks, keeping him updated on where the trees fall.

Lancelot is involved in other ways, or will be. In February, he was Mayor Jamison’s appointment to the new Milton Sustainability Advisory Committee, a group tasked with advising city staff on sustainability-related strategies.

During the public appointment process, Jamison accurately named Charlie Lancelot the “keeper of Providence Park.”

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