First Phase of Lavonia Park Renovations Scheduled to Begin in the Fall

The City of Lavonia has released a list of some of the improvements planned at the Lavonia City Park.

City councilmen, the Mayor, and staff have been working with the Parks Committee to review plans for the park renovation and the scope of the work.

Work will be done in several phases.

At their meeting earlier this week, Mayor Courtney Umbehant outlined some of the work that will take place during phase one.  The first will be creating a playground area for children of different ages.

“In this first phase, we’re going to install a playground area – one for older kids and one for smaller kids. Some people refer to those as ‘tot lots.’ So they will have some fencing to keep them corralled in one area and that will keep others out,” he said.

Umbehant also said some major work will be done to improve the appearance of the Scout hut as well as make it more useable for scouts.

“We’ll improve the appearance of the Scout hut. We’ll fix it so that the block building doesn’t look like block building. We’re going to add some siding that will be low maintenance and blend better in with the area. We’re also going to put in some windows so the scouts don’t have to sit in the dark room and they can enjoy some sunlight when they have their meetings. We’re also going to give them a firepit and a nice patio in place of the deck they have. So it’s going to look a lot better and they can take some pride in it,” Umbehant explained.

Scouts are also planning to do some work on the inside of the Scout hut.

“They’re going to be doing that while we’re making outside improvements and they’re going to come up with a brand new place,” the Mayor said.

Umbehant also said the City plans to restore the creek bed and clean up the existing walking trails.

Finally, he said phase one will include placing an eagle sculpture in the area where a kids’ slide used to be.

“The big round area back there used to be a slide. We have an eagle that was donated to the City that we’ve been working on for a couple of years. That eagle is going to be placed in that area. It’s going to be a beautiful attraction. It’s going to look great beside the Scout hut and might be something the Scouts can use to motivate scouts to stay in the program until they become Eagle Scouts,” the Mayor said.

Work on phase one of the park renovations is expected to begin in the coming months with a family day planned for the spring of next year.

Future plans, Umbehant said, include expanding the walking trails to include fitness stations and to build a pavilion with a kitchen area.