On sunny days, Marietta’s Laurel Park teems with walkers, tennis players and moms tending children on the playground. Other than Glover Park on the Marietta Square, the west side park is the busiest of the city’s 22 parks.
Work is scheduled to start Monday on a $1.2 million renovation at the 25-acre facility on Manning Road. Workers will drain and dredge two popular duck ponds and replace aging spillways during the first phase of construction. The project is part of a $25 million bond referendum Marietta voters approved in 2009.
Projects underway include $100,000 in improvements to the Aviation Baseball/Softball complex off South Marietta Parkway. The complex is expected to open in May. A $1.75 million renovation at Hickory Hills Park is scheduled to start in June, adding two youth soccer fields along with tennis courts, playground, walking trails and picnic pavilions. An upgrade at Merritt Park will add the first tennis courts at a park east of I-75.
All of Marietta’s parks, except Henry Park which was renovated two years ago, will get updates from the smallest -- $5,000 for Hill Park -- to $3.75 million for the Elizabeth Porter Recreation Center off North Marietta Parkway. Some $5 million has been earmarked to buy property for new parks, trails and green space.
A year ago, the city bought a 13-acre apartment complex on Franklin Road for $2.7 million in a foreclosure sale. The complex was razed in January and there are plans to use some of the land for a new park. The city has also bought property around the Porter Center to allow frontage on North Marietta Parkway.
Councilman Anthony Coleman said he is pleased that underserved areas in the city will benefit from the parks bond. His ward includes the aging Porter Center. A section of the center opened in 1946 as the Cobb County Hospital serving the area’s black residents. Although numbers dropped at the center after a nearby housing project was razed, the councilman believes a new facility will draw users from around the city.
“It’s been far too long since facilities in some areas of the city have been improved,” he said. “I think it’s time for a first-class recreation center in this community.”
A second recreation center on Lawrence Street will get a $1.1 million renovation. Coleman said the rehab will help the center continue as a popular event space for African-American gatherings.
Parks and Recreation Director Rich Buss said the city looked at an equitable distribution of services before developing a 10-year master park plan to serve Marietta’s 56,579 residents. The mayor and council also appointed a 16-member citizens advisory committee to make recommendations for park changes.
Jim Morris, who served on the committee, said the group looked at every facility in the system and others in the metro area during a one-year study of parks. In a final report to the city council, the senior Cobb Juvenile Court judge remarked that committee members saw new and recently rehabbed parks as well as parks with dead lakes, collapsing dams and nearly empty recreation centers.
“We recommended specific improvements and for the most part, the city listened to us,” Morris said. “We hope this helps the need for services all over the city.”
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