THOMASVILLE — The park at Cherokee Lake doesn’t have much to offer when it comes to walking trails, a lot of playground equipment or a pretty butterfly garden — but that could change in a few years.

City government plans to develop the park into a multi-purpose area.

Because the park is located beside one of the only two public lakes the city maintains, its development as an asset is heightened.

Staff dreams that the area could be expanded from a place people fish and maybe picnic under the pavilion to much more.

City manager Steve Sykes said staff hopes eventually a small butterfly garden could be set near the Rose Garden, a one-mile walking trail could encircle Cherokee Lake and that biking would be a possibility at the park, too.

“These aren’t budgeted activities for any particular year,” he said.

The dreams also may not come to fruition.

But if they do, staff has prepared a game plan.

The first step happened Thursday, when the forestry commission managed a controlled burn at the lake to clear brush overgrowth.

City council budgeted $50,000 in the 2005 budget to prepare a master plan for Cherokee Lake and to start its clean-up.

In the meantime, Sykes said a June deadline has been set for the City to complete topographical and area maps so recommendations can be made to city council for approval.

Sykes also anticipates the park at Cherokee Lake’s preliminary master plan will be completed in June. He aims for August as a deadline for the final development of the park’s master plan.

Sykes said current plans call for Cherokee Lake and the current picnic pavilion there to be cleaned and improved by December.

“What we’re doing now is in preparation for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 budget,” he said in reference to the rest of the development.

The lake and park’s development will probably be a three-year project.

Sykes hopes cost estimates for bike/walking trails and lighting improvements at the lake can be completed by the end of this year.

Sykes said funding for the lake and park’s development could come from grants, community clubs such as the Boy Scouts that look for nature projects to adopt, the city’s budget or from private corporate sponsors.

Terry Everett, a Thomasville resident who lives near the lake, said he’d like to see some changes.

“I think it’d be a nice thing,” he said. “It’d be a nice place to have a walking area, maybe some biking.”

Edward Ferguson, another Thomasville resident, said the changes city government wants to make at the park won’t affect him.

“It don’t make no difference to me what they do,” he said.

Cathy Heckadon, another older Thomasville resident, said she thinks the park improvements would give local children another good place to go.

“The parks are good,” she said. “I’m older and I’m always occupied with stuff, but you’ve got to keep the children occupied.”



To reach reporter Blenda Link, call 226-2400, ext. 227.