Lithia Springs Park To Sport Fast-Pitch Softball

Two fields are expected be used for fast-pitch girls softball at the new Lithia Springs Park and Recreation Center, anticipated to open sometime in June.

“Fast-pitch girls softball will be a new sport in our Parks and Recreation system,” said Douglas County Project Manager Wayne Watson. 

In total, four ball fields will occupy the park. “The other two fields are anticipated to be used for baseball and softball teams," Watson said.

Parks and Recreation Director Gary Dukes said clinics will be held initially for the fast-pitch girls’ softball team, with leagues originating “somewhere down the road.”

Douglas County Parks and Recreation will manage the new park, which will replace the Lithia Springs Girls Park and Woodrow Wilson Park. The two parks were destroyed in the September 2009 floods.

Talks were already in place to update the parks prior to the flooding since both were more than 50 years old and built in the 100-year floodplain of Sweetwater Creek.

“The parks had been flooded numerous times before, but the September 2009 floods really did them in,” Watson said.

Activities once played on those ball fields will resume at the new park.

“The Lithia Springs area has long had youth baseball and softball teams, and these parks were their home,” Watson said. “The new park will allow Lithia Springs citizens to not have to travel as far to play ball.”

More than $2 million was dedicated to the the new park from Douglas County's 2002 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, and the county’s general fund.

In addition, Douglas County received a $75,000 grant from Resurgens Orthopaedics to build all-accessible playground equipment to accommodate children with disabilities, Dukes said.

“We try to put accessible equipment everywhere, but we can’t afford to do it in all locations,” he said. “The $75,000 grant we received from Resurgens allowed us to put it in the park.”

Other park amenities include two playgrounds, picnic pavilions and restrooms, Dukes said.

The new park is at 2922 South Sweetwater Road, a few miles away from the old Woodrow Wilson Park. The county purchased more than 20 acres of land from an adjacent church and seven acres from a private residence.

“Having a park in the area adds to residents’ quality of life, and home values go up,” Dukes said. “It also allows residents the ability to exercise and get outside.”