By Michael Prochaska
Staff Writer

After three years of conceptual planning and raising funds, Rutledge will finally see a new park.

A motion passed unanimously during a called city council meeting Monday morning to accept a bid of $346,500 from Willow Construction of Powder Springs, Ga.

“We’re very excited to get the park underway,” said Rutledge Mayor Spencer Knight.

The Rutledge recreational park will be equipped with two tennis courts, a softball field, a skate park, a basketball court, trails and a parking lot.

The park, which has yet to be named, will sit on a 7.2-acre piece of property behind the city’s fire station on Fairplay Road.

 For years, a disheveled baseball diamond and weathered wooden bleachers stood desolated right outside downtown.  
 Originally, the plan was to refurbish the ball field and draft a long-term plan for everything else, said Knight, but the city was able to obtain a matching grant from the Department of Natural Resources.

A $62,400 Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant was approved in 2010 and has been budgeted for the 2013 fiscal year.  City officials expect the park to be completed in December because the grant will expire by the end of the calendar year, but a beginning construction date has not yet been determined.

Printed in the July 5, 2012 edition