Park renovations the topic of Let’s Discuss meeting

Published 8:55 pm Wednesday, July 2, 2025

THOMASVILLE — Residents piled into Imagine Thomasville on Monday evening as City Planner Kenny Thompson and Parks and Recreation Director Mike Owens updated the public on ongoing park renovations.

According to Thompson, in 2015, the City of Thomasville began a parks improvement initiative.

“We knew we had several parks and we knew that over the past 30 years there had been no sort of strategic investment on how to improve and elevate the parks experience in our community,” Thompson said.

The City began slowly working with the community, improving one park at a time, beginning with MacIntyre Park, hosting a design charrette along with community input, before then moving to Weston Park and following a similar vision, before implementing the improvements.

While working on the parks, Thompson said the City realized they needed to take a step back and do a full assessment and inventory of the parks system.

Unfortunately, many of the parks need an overhaul.

After bringing in a specialist to study the parks, it was estimated that the City would need $11 million just to bring the parks to a baseline standard.

“We are only allocating $2 million every six years, so as you can see, that math doesn’t add up,” Owens said.

Knowing this could not be accomplished all at once, parks were broken into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priority parks, based on age, public input, and their usage.

Paradise Park, Cassidy Park, and Balfour Park have all been designated as 1st priority parks.

Paradise Park is well underway with its renovations, with the Phase One enhancements recently completed.

The original vision for Paradise Park came out of a public design charrette hosted in 2018 that was used to successfully apply for a $200,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund grant. The grant, along with the City funds, helped with Phase one, which included the restoration of the historic carriageways, restoration of the historic bandstand, a 1/4 mile oval walkway centered around the bandstand, new pedestrian lighting, new park benches, and trash cans.

To complete this portion of the project, the City of Thomasville provided $1.2 million.

The City has also partnered with Tall Timbers, as Phase One includes a six-acre Longleaf Pine/wiregrass restoration. The Longleaf Pines will be salvaged and preserved by Tall Timbers for use in regional historic projects.

“When you come back a year from now, you will see wiregrass, pollinator plants, and wildflowers within that restoration area,” Thompson said.

Phase two of Paradise Park, which is set to begin in 2026, has been entirely funded through a $3 million grant and $1.5 million in private donations.

This will allow for new playground equipment, adding restrooms, an entry plaza, along with an access road and additional parking.

It will also give students and visitors the chance to visit an outdoor classroom, complete with pavilions and educational kiosks.

Balfour Park has also started its early renovations, with drawings currently including added restrooms, a new playground, a splashpad area, and a picnic pavilion.

Residents in attendance expressed excitement over the water feature, questioning if it would cost anything to take children there, as it does in surrounding communities. However, Owens assured the feature would be free to those in attendance.

The final first priority park is Cassidy Pond Park, which was funded by a state $1 million grant. The grant will help cover a new walking trail, an added fishing pier, improved parking, added restrooms and picnic tables, and a new disc golf course constructed by the Red Hills Disc Golf Association.

Residents questioned if MacIntyre Park’s disc golf course would be moved to the Cassidy Pond Park or if this would be a new disc golf course entirely.

Owens hopes that between the City and the Red Hills Disc Golf Association, they will maintain both courses.

“It is currently in the planning process and we hope to begin construction on this aspect in early 2026,” Thompson said. “Cassidy Pond will have the shortest design timeline.”

Cherokee Lake, Northside Park, and Flipper Park were all designated as 2nd priority parks, while MacIntyre Park and Weston Park are third priority due to their more recent upgrades. Remington Park was designated as a specialty park and is a separate entity in the study.

Residents are encouraged to follow along on the progress of Balfour and Cassidy Pond Park, and keep their ears open as funding becomes available for 2nd priority parks to begin the design process.