AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) — After years of trying to fix drainage problems at the Diamond Lakes scoring towers, Augusta has come up short. Now, the city is digging deep into its coffers to make what is hoped are the final repairs.

“We need Diamond Lakes open, we’re going to spend this money, unfortunately, and I hate it for the taxpayers, this is our Diamond in the rough, especially on the south side,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Brandon Garrett.

Commissioners approved spending $850,000 in sales tax funds to fix the drains in the scoring towers, the drainage issues creating leaks and causing the bathrooms in the towers to be closed for months.

“Now we’ve put over a million dollars into it, so this is something that needs to hurry up and get solved,” said Commissioner Bobby Williams.

The plan is to replace faulty drains in the towers and gut the bathrooms because of the age of the two structures.

“Taking the bathrooms out was a needed thing anyway, it was time for an upgrade, those towers we built back in ’99 hadn’t been upgraded since,” said Interim Central Services Director Ron Lampkin.

“We just need to get it fixed, at the end of the day it’s just time to get it fixed, we can go back and forth on the dollar amount, all we want we know, the cost of everything is going up, we need to get it fixed,” said Commissioner Jordan Johnson.  

“it’s definitely been a challenge now that we have the root of the problem this will definitely fix it,” said Lampkin.

The fix is expected to take another three months.