Hot dogs and soft drinks are coming to Piedmont Park, with perhaps a slight cushion for the city of Atlanta's budget crisis on the side.

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Monday, the Piedmont Park Conservancy, the non-profit group that manages the 185-acre property, will open up a concession stand at the park's tennis center. It will be Piedmont's first fixed vending operation since 1910, according to the conservancy's research.

The conservancy will evenly split the profits with the city's parks department, a welcome opportunity for the city in light of its projected $140 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Dianne Harnell Cohen, the city's commissioner for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, said the department has had to cut $4.9 million from its upcoming budget.

"We're looking at any kind of revenue source that would help," Cohen said.

Piedmont Park will be the second city park with vending operations, after tiny Findley Plaza in Little Five Points, she said. Operating groups for Chastain and Woodruff parks also have received city permission to have concessions.

The concessions stand at Piedmont, which would be operated by a vendor hired by the conservancy, will offer standard picnic fare – kosher hot dogs, chips, soft drinks and the like.

Chris Nelson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the conservancy, said that when the group has surveyed park visitors in the past, concessions has always been a popular request.

"We hope it makes money, but we also are doing it because we feel it is an important amenity to offer to the public," Nelson said.

Nelson did not have revenue projections for the Piedmont concessions.

Bike and skate rentals could be included in concessions, Cohen said. The city is also considering operating a skate park.

Parks such as Piedmont and Chastain "have the ability to become strong, robust revenue generators for the parks department," said Councilman H. Lamar Willis.

Piedmont will also start a trial recycling program on Wednesday. The park will place 50 bins around the park where visitors can deposit plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

The park will collect data over 90 days to analyze how much recyclables they collect, the money is saved by removing recyclables from the trash stream, and what the park earns back by selling the plastic and aluminum to recycling companies.

Central Atlanta Progress, a downtown improvement group that manages Woodruff Park, is planning a small fast-food restaurant, coffee shop and sit-down restaurant at the three-acre downtown park, according to Cooper Holland, Central Atlanta Progress' senior project manager for the park. A playground is also in the works, she said.

Central Atlanta Progress still needs to have its construction plans approved by the city before it can start raising funds for the buildings, which would be leased out, Holland said.

"We're not blowing up the park and starting over again," Holland said. "We're taking the good parts of the design and adding to it."

The Chastain Park Conservancy's plans are undetermined.