Lithia Springs Park to Open Next Month

could be open to residents soon after the first of the year.

While a specific date hasn’t been set, officials said they are hoping to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony in January. This will be followed by a big event with food and a baseball game involving the in the spring.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Commissioner Henry Mitchell, who represents Lithia Springs. He said he hopes the spring event will be held every year.

The park includes four ball fields, picnic pavilions, two restroom facilities and two playgrounds, the larger of which is handicap-accessible. County Administrator Eric Linton said Resurgens Orthopaedics donated about $70,000 in handicap-accessible equipment, while the county gave another $60,000 toward equipment to make the playground bigger.

“Anybody can use the accessible equipment,” Linton said. “It just has certain ramps and lower stairs that allows (children with disabilities) to use the equipment.”

The park will also feature a sitting and meditation area called Belcher Grove, named for the Belcher family, from whom the county bought the final parcel for the park.

“He would let people play in his pasture, kept it cut, and there was a baseball field,” Linton said. “A lot of people remember that, so in honor of that and that family, we’re going to put in a little grove called the Belcher Grove."

Linton said the park arborist will lay out the area, which will include some of the shrubbery kept from the Belchers’ home. The Belchers’ shrubbery has been used in other county parks and at the .

“The house that was there was well landscaped and had a lot of planting material,” Linton said. “We didn’t want any of those plants to go to waste.”

The new park will replace the Lithia Springs Girls Park and Woodrow Wilson Park, which were destroyed by the 2009 floods.

“When those parks flooded, there was no park in that area,” Mitchell said. “This is going to be really great.”

Mitchell said he is getting phone calls from residents asking when the park will officially open.

“They’re excited about it,” he said. “It’s not as huge as the other park was, but it’s got enough to keep you busy. It’s a great park. It looks exceptionally well."

The park's price tag of more than $2 million was funded through the 2002 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

At its last meeting, the Board of Commissioners approved a payment of $7,437 above the original contract amount to C.P. Richards Construction to cover the cost of relocating the manhole for the sewer system at the park. That money will also go to subsequent tests to ensure proper flow.