City showcases new park projects

JACKSON, Tenn. — The City of Jackson held a public forum for citizens with the Parks and Recreation Department.

The city’s parks and recreation service unveiled a load of new projects at the meeting.

One of note was a new park they’re building on Windy City Road south of the fire station. This park will feature a pavilion, playground, and walking trail.

“We are hoping that it will be completed by spring of ’25, but again, we’re going to be waiting on contracts from the state, TDEC has to do site visits. We can’t guarantee that timeline, but as the city, that’s what we’re hoping for,” said Christi David, the Park Operations Manager.

They also said that a public restroom will be added to Stella Duncan Park in Bemis by winter of 2024. This came after significant requests from the public.

At Shirlene Mercer Park on East Chester, they will be repaving the walking trails.

As for the Wallace Road Park, the original playground area will become a parking lot, and they will put in an ADA-compliant walking trail.

“We do have the new playground in already, and so as far as putting the parking lot in and walking trail, again, we’re hoping to start that process in spring to summer of 2024. That is the city’s timeline, but we will be waiting on the state to approve that funding,” David said.

One of the biggest projects that seems to have the community polarized is the addition of a new 10,000-square-foot skate park at the tennis complex. This new park will be concrete and hold a wide variety of amenities for skaters, bicyclers, and more.

They say it should be completed by winter of 2024. However, while a considerable amount of people are excited for the new skate park, the Jackson West Tennessee Tennis Association was in attendance and openly voiced concerns about it.

They are worried about the preservation of the courts and the noise level.

“I think what we got from the dialogue, today, is that they are not necessarily opposed to the skate park, they’re more opposed to the location of the skatepark. I hope that, today, we opened a conversation that we can all come together, meet around the table because I think there might be a lot of misconceptions on both sides. And so the way to walk through that is to just talk about it and let’s get together and figure out a solution for everybody,” David said.

These projects will cost $1.68 million and the city will match $840,000. The projects are funded through ARPA funds, land match, and capital funds.

Also, briefly mentioned were plans in the future to move all athletics in Muse Park to the north side of Parkway and a redesign for Cyprus Grove.

The south side of Muse Park is expected to become a nature area, and they are moving the athletics, like basketball, to the north side.

There are renovating the wooden board walks at the park.

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