Plans for park

by Susan Gibbs Record Reporter
Published: May 22, 2008

By the end of the coming fiscal year, Greene County’s Park should have a new and improved road, electricity - and real toilets.
“The Park Road should be paved by fall,” says Parks and Recreation Director Julius Bates. “Then we’ll bring in electricity.”
Electrical service will enable what Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee Chair Joanne Burkholder refers to as “a concession area with a comfort station.”
Money is in hand for those projects.
Bates explained that the road will be paid for with Virginia Department of Transportation Recreational Access funds. Funding for the electricity and the concession area will come from a number of sources.
The Greene County Ruritans have donated about $15,000 for park improvements, and that money has been complimented with a $5,000 contribution by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
In addition, there is money left over from the $30,000 the Board of Supervisors allocated to the Parks and Recreation Department for the design of a Community Park Master Plan (the Plan).
On May 13, at the Board of Supervisors regularly scheduled meeting, Bates announced that he had used only $9,300 of those funds and requested that the Board allow his department to reallocate the remainder.
The Board approved Bates’ request and another $20,000 or so was added to Parks and Recreation coffer.
And there’s more to come, Bates says.
That “more to come” hinges on the Board’s approval of the Plan.
The Plan—created by Virginia Tech’s Community Design Assistance Center—will be finalized next week and presented to the Board in June or July.
It is a conceptual rendering of a complete recreational facility to be completed in two phases.
The first phase calls for the concession area, four tennis courts, two one-half basketball courts and a playground. The second calls for “a community center, a pool, a gym, softball fields, a skateboard park and space for Frisbee golf,” says Bates.
But all of that is not going to happen overnight.
For now, Bates is concentrating on Phase I of the Plan: The first step is to “get the road, the electricity, the comfort station and tennis courts and go from there,” he says.
Funds are available to provide for the electricity and the concession area, but they are not yet available for tennis courts or basketball courts.
However, once the Master Plan has been accepted by the Board, the Department of Parks and Recreation can start applying for grants.
“We’re already on a list for a grant called ‘Tennis in the Park,’ (provided by) the United States Tennis Association,” Bates says. “And we’ll go looking for other grants.”
The Park will be developed one step at a time, and Bates says, going looking for grants might not be enough.
“We’ll need community support to help the projects move faster. People can help with fundraising, and to represent the public at Board of Supervisor and Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee meetings.”
Further, while cash donations are welcome, so are contributions of time. The Department of Parks and Recreation needs people to do grant research and labor, such as grading and fencing.
“We have to see (the development of the Park) as part of our future … not our distant future,” says Bates