On Saturday, the City of Blue Ridge completed the first stage in renovating the downtown city park.  The section of the park which is closest to Church Street now has sod and plant and tree installations.  There is still no playground at the park.  Construction of the new playground will begin in summer.  Eventually, a sidewalk will ring the park so that park-goers can walk along West Main and Church streets without stepping into the street.

One vision of the renovated park is to be an arboretum for native plants and trees and include signs which will tell about the plants.  Pam Marr of Tree City Nursery & Landscaping, which is designing and installing the park, is “tickled pink” to be working on a project benefiting the entire community.  She has chosen a mixture of native and hybrids crossed with native plants to put in the landscape.

A final decision on playground design and equipment has yet to be made. There are, though, some very clear goals about features the playground will have.  First, there will be innovative playground equipment that all children can use, even those that are differently-abled.  Some equipment will be from the old playground and other equipment is being donated.  Second, the plans call for one playground for older kids and one for younger kids.  To the relief of parents monitoring kids that like to dart out of the playground; there will be one gate, the fence will be higher and be plastic-coated.  The playground will be around the restrooms between the stage and the arboretum.  In front of the stage, there will still be an unfenced, grassy lawn area where people can sit and enjoy stage events.

Adults will have playground equipment of their own as well.  Mayor Whitener hopes to bring in exercise equipment to make an outdoor adult fitness park.

A new grill area which is suitable for the Good Samaritan’s Labor Day Barbeque and family grill-outs is also being built.  Toby Minter, who helped draw up the original grill structure, is working with the Good Samaritans to design the new structure.  All member of the City Council and Mayor Whitener have listened to input from Good Samaritan’s Carlie Hammond and have promised to build a grill area which is a consensus between the needs of the city and the Good Samaritans.

There is no word yet about Blue Bear, when he is coming out of hibernation or where in the park his throne will be.  Hibernation is being very good to Blue Bear because he is getting those pesky termites cleaned out and his fur re-finished.

In the upcoming weeks, the Mayor hopes to have a press conference where she can present a visually-clear and easily-understandable design layout of the park.  The current design doesn’t have all the features drawn in.  She also wants to print the design on a banner and place it in the downtown park so that people can keep up with the park’s progress.