Public will talk of park

A new park is being designed for Evans, and officials want to know what the public thinks.

Columbia County residents will get the chance to make their opinions known about a preliminary Evans Town Center Park design at a Monday night public meeting. The park idea is in a conceptual plan stage, but it could be altered.

"We thought for a preliminary plan it looked real good, but it's not anywhere near final,'' county commission Chairman Ron Cross said.

"We want to get the public input. And we've got a little time because we don't have the money to fund it anyway right now.''

The park would be located on a 17-acre stretch of land located behind the Kroger off Washington Road in Evans. Monday's meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Evans Government Complex auditorium.

The county already has agreed to buy from Doctors Hospital the 17 acres behind the Kroger. The agreed-on sale price is $3.9 million. Officials say they will close on the property by the end of this year.

For now, the conceptual plan for the park calls for a primary lawn area, which would be large enough to have one championship-size soccer field, and two lawn areas, all to be bordered and separated by trees.

A 100-foot-by-600-foot mall area bordered by trees also was included between two of the lawns, as was a fountain at the center of the mall and a playground nearby.

The plan includes a plaza and restrooms, bike and walking path, a multipurpose pavilion, parking on the perimeter of the site and an access area linking the site with the nearby planned residential and commercial development, Marshall Place.

Barry Smith, the county's community and leisure services director, has said the park idea is one that likely will have to be implemented in two phases: the first phase would probably cost about $2.8 million, and the second, about $1.5 million.

He has said officials are considering the park idea to be a two-year project, with construction beginning possibly as early as next fall, pending funding.