CLARKESVILLE – Families who use Sam Pitts Park in Clarkesville shouldn’t panic when they go to use the reopened facility.
The park’s swings are absent now, but they will be returning.
Joseph Deputy, Clarkesville project manager for ESG Operations Inc., gave an update on the park during Monday night’s Clarkesville City Council meeting.
“Several very large and very dead trees were felled,” Deputy told the council. “You may notice the swings have also been taken down. They’re currently being stored at the public works building, where we can give them the cleaning they need, and it will give us time to rebuild all the framework that all those swings are hanging from.”
Repair of the swings and swing frames must be done as crews have time between other daily duties and significant projects, such as repair of failed infrastructure that resulted in a sinkhole off Madison Street.
“It’s just going to take us time,” Deputy said. “There are 16 swings … it’ll be a little before we get them back up, but the park is safe in terms of dead falls and things like that.”
During the meeting, Mayor Barrie Aycock stressed the absence of swings is a temporary condition.
“The swings are not gone for good,” Aycock told those in the audience. “They will return.”
As most people in the area are aware, Pitts Park was flooded by the Soque River that runs along it twice recently, necessitating the prolonged closures for cleanup and repair.
“I know that we have certain safety issues and health issues that the park has been sorely challenged in the last few months, and we want to make sure that everybody’s safe and I regret the inconvenience, but hopefully when the swings are back up everybody will know that they are safe to use,” Aycock said after the meeting.
