By Susan Gibbs
Published: March 13, 2008

The County Park will be getting a new access road towards the end of the summer, local leaders say, and a master plan is in the works for its future.

About a year ago, Board of Supervisors Member Jeri Allen proposed that the access road—which was awaiting its turn for improvements on the County’s Six Year Plan—be paved in accordance with the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT’s) Rural Rustic Road program.

VDOT approved the project, but work was slowed “by the need to bid out the engineering work,” Allen explains. WW Associates, an engineering firm in Charlottesville that has done engineering work for the County in the past - including designing its wastewater treatment plant - won the bid.

“I am beyond delighted. It is long overdue,” Allen says.

VDOT’s Rural Rustic Road program - which puts pavement down over gravel—is a practical approach to paving Virginia’s low-volume roads. To be eligible, the road must be unpaved, used predominantly for local traffic, and already within the state secondary system. It must carry at least 50, but no more than 750 vehicles per day.

VDOT will begin work on the park’s access road when soccer season ends, toward the end of the summer.

The County has not been spending much money on parks and recreation, though improvements have been programmed into its Capital Improvement Plan - down the road.

Presently, Greene “only allows about $4.50 per capita for recreation,” says Joann Burkholder, chair of Greene’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (the Committee).

But Virginia Tech is assisting the County with the development of a master plan for the park that should be completed in May, Burkholder says.

“It’s a list of dreams,” Burkholder says of the conceptual plan, “with a community center, tennis courts, a swimming pool and additional ball fields.
While Burkholder acknowledges that residents are unlikely to see any of those dreams become realities until the middle of the next decade, she does say that some of the County’s have been hard at work, doing what they can with very little money.

At present, there is no electricity at the park, no comfort stations, and the ball fields need leveling.

“We have a soil specialist who will donate all his work to the County of Greene,” Burkholder says. “We also have an excavation company that would donate its time but the County would have to pay for the materials. We have the possibility of a well-driller than may donate.”

And, the Ruritans—who, Burkholder points out, “put together the (pavilion) at the park”—continue to help. A gold tournament put on by the Club brought in about $9,600 for upgrades to the park.

“We have also applied for a $10,000 grant which we hope would help the park. We should hear about (that) the middle of March,” says Burkholder.

That money, if awarded, is earmarked for park improvements, along with about $30,000 the County received for the sale of timber taken from the area.

According to Ruritan President Jerry Gore, the Ruritans have enhanced the area surrounding the pavilion.

“We’ve put in walkways and pathways,” says Gore. “We put down the edging for pathways and mulch for people to walk on. We supplied the pavilion with picnic tables. We put timbers down around the edges of the playing fields. The edging and mulch around the playground was done by the Ruritans. We landscaped the entranceway recently, and installed a sign provided by the County.”

In addition, Gore says, there is “a lot of stuff in the offing. (The Ruritans) want to construct two or three family-size picnic shelters … with roofs and open sides. We want to construct a pedestrian bridge across a ditch (between) the parking lot and the soccer field.”
Those projects will not be completed all at once.

“We (aim to) complete a little bit each year,” Gore says. “The bottom line is for a long time in the past, and for the foreseeable future, the Ruritans have been very much involved in the park. We’ve kind of adopted (it) as our major community undertaking. We keep an eye on it to make sure it is properly administered and taken care of.”