The Messenger 06.21.12

By CHRIS MENEES
Staff Reporter
The community is being asked to weigh in on a proposed new park project for South Fulton.
Jeff Campbell, chairman of the Twin Cities Restoration Foundation, recently pitched an exciting park proposal to the South Fulton City Commission and offered a generous gift to help make it happen.
Campbell, who has been active in many revitalization projects in Fulton and South Fulton, approached the city commission at its May session with plans for a much-needed community park for South Fulton. He offered to personally provide the matching funds for a Local Parks and Recreation Fund Grant, a 50/50 matching grant available through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
He told commissioners he wants “a first-class park” and said he has personally partnered with A2H — Askew Hargraves Harcourt & Associates Inc. — a full-service firm of engineers, architects, planners, landscape architects and land surveyors.
The city commission voted last month to have South Fulton’s city manager proceed with the grant application with the assistance of A2H.
The City of South Fulton, in partnership with the Twin Cities Restoration Foundation, is submitting the grant application to the state, focused on the possibility of a half-million dollar grant for the park project, Campbell said Wednesday.
However, the community’s help is needed at this stage.
“We need to strengthen our application as much as possible to be successful. One way we can do that is to be able to demonstrate broad community support for a downtown park in South Fulton,” Campbell said in an email message sent by the Twin Cities Chamber of Commerce.
The proposed site for the park is just south of West State Line, directly across from Pontotoc Park in downtown Fulton. Campbell said the new park would add four acres of “green space” to the downtown area and provide much-needed paved parking for both parks.
In addition, it would add much-needed space for the Twin Cities’ Banana Festival and other community events.
Proposed features of the park include a one-acre town lake, a four-acre walking trail, children’s playground areas, a permanent bandstand and amphitheater and paved parking.
The community’s help is immediately needed in expressing support for the park project. Local residents — regardless of where they live — who would support the new park and who might use the facility are being asked to email the Twin Cities Chamber of Commerce to express support. The emails will be included in the grant application, according to Campbell.
“This email could be quick and easy. It could contain a sentence of support of a couple of paragraphs,” he said.
The deadline is fast approaching, though, and the emails are needed by the end of business Friday. Emails of support for the park project may be sent to: twincitieschamber@bellsouth.net.
Campbell is hopeful there will be a show of support for a project which he said is “vital to our efforts to continue to revitalize our downtown areas and make the Twin Cities a better place to live for ourselves and our future generations.”
Staff Reporter Chris Menees may be contacted by email at cmenees@ucmessenger.com.