Grovetown park expansion is planned

Grovetown city officials announced expansions of two city recreation areas at Monday's semimonthly city council meeting.

City officials are reviewing a contract to secure $300,000 in state Department of Transportation green-space funding to expand The Grovetown Trails at Euchee Creek.

"We'll have it all the way to Wrightsboro Road," Mayor Dennis Trudeau said.

The park, which opened in the spring of 2004 on 44.7 acres of land bordering Euchee Creek at Harlem-Grovetown Road, includes two miles of trails, a rock den, parking area, a 100-feet-deep stocked pond, a 300-foot bridge, rock outcroppings, picnic areas and an overlook.

The trails stretch behind Grovetown Middle School. The construction will extend the trails to meet Wrightsboro Road and allow middle school pupils to study biology and nature firsthand in the park.

"We're going to loop the existing trails," Trudeau said, adding that the extension will eliminate a few of the dead-end trails so park visitors will not have to walk the same trail twice.

The project will be funded by $300,000 from the DOT and $75,000 of city money, Trudeau said.

Once the city attorney reviews the contract, it will be sent to the DOT. When it is approved, the city will take bids.

Trudeau said he hopes to put the project out for bids in December, but he gave no estimated completion date.

At the meeting, Trudeau also asked for Columbia County's military servicemen and women to turn in forms to have their names included on a Memorial Wall. Construction is slated to begin Sept. 25.

On Aug. 28, city officials approved a $120,000 bid to construct the serpentine granite wall in a park at the corner of Old Wrightsboro Road and West Robinson Avenue between the gazebo and Grovetown Museum.

The wall will have panels engraved with names of Columbia County servicemen and women under their service branch insignia.

For a form or more information, call Grovetown City Hall at (706) 863-4576.