The City of Thomasville’s initiatives to improve the community’s public greenspaces hit a milestone last week when new playground equipment was installed at MacIntyre Park. This week, installation will begin for new equipment at Weston Park. Both parks were the focus of recent public visioning discussions that allowed citizens to work with City planners to map the future of these popular public spaces.
“Both of these parks are very important in our community and are loved by the residents who live in the neighborhoods that surround them,” said Brian Herrmann, City Planner. “It was very rewarding to work hand in hand with so many engaged citizens who wanted to take the time to re-imagine these parks and how we could best use them going forward. In both cases, everyone agreed that having safe and fun playground equipment was very important for our youngest citizens.”
Ribbon cuttings will be held to celebrate the new play areas at both parks on Thursday, November 9, 2017. The MacIntyre Park ribbon cutting will begin at 10 am and will be held at the new playground area. At 11:00 a.m., a ribbon cutting will be held at the playground at Weston Park. Both events are open to the public.
Improving Thomasville’s parks became a focus in 2016 after a group of fifth grade students discussed how to improve MacIntyre Park as part of their class project. The group presented their ideas to the City Council, who supported the initiative to improve Thomasville’s public parks. MacIntyre Park and Weston Park were the first parks to be discussed in community visioning session; Paradise Park is on tap for 2018.
“We are fortunate to have a highly engaged community, particularly when it comes to our public greenspaces,” said Lauren Radford, Director of Outreach and Engagement. “In addition to MacIntyre Park and Weston Park, we are also improving Cherokee Lake Park and had great attendance at two Discovery Walks where we discussed that park’s improvement plan.” Cherokee Lake is expected to be completed in the spring of 2018.
For more information about the ribbon cutting events or other City of Thomasville projects or initiatives, please visit Thomasville.org or call Radford at 227-4015.