Cornelia has brought in a consultant to conduct a general reassessment of parks across the city.
Consulting company SPG has been tasked with identifying potential needs for the city’s eight parks – a combination of pocket parks and larger parks that include: Farlinger Park, Irvin Street Park, Jim Smith Park, Library Park, Oak Street Park, City Park, a splash pad and a dog park.
As part of the process, the company will study layout and equipment needs across the properties. Long-term, the study could bring potential improvements, upgrades and renovations.
Cornelia City Manager Dee Anderson said a potential cost will be determined after the reassessment is complete.
“If the city owns an asset, there has to be some sort of maintenance to it,” Cornelia Mayor John Borrow said. “Sometimes the equipment gets old and we have to replace it. Or, maybe, we say, ‘Hey, this isn’t the best place for a playground, and maybe we can do it (elsewhere)’. We’re evaluating whether we have proper lighting, if the equipment is safe, or what we can do to make it better.”
New park
SPG is also the company in charge of design for Cornelia’s latest park, which is now in the works.
Cornelia’s new city park project will be located off Grant Place. It also will come with a new amphitheater with a seating capacity of 5,000 people.
That new park is just over three acres, according to city officials, and is estimated to cost $2.1 million in total.
That project is funded, in part, through a $1 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Phase I of the project, which includes the park, is estimated at $2.1 million – paid from the grant, SPLOST funding and the city’s general fund. That phase is expected to be completed by December 2025. Phase II is slated for completion in 2026 for $1.5 million from the city’s general fund.
While the amphitheater, in its entirety, won’t be finished until early-2027, the site will be graded by Higgins Construction in time for the upcoming Cornelia Music Festival, headlined by musician Marty Stuart on May 17, according to Anderson.
