New Year, New Opportunities to Get Outside

A new year brings new plans for Mecklenburg County Park & Recreation, and Partners for Parks is looking forward to rolling up its sleeves and joining hands to help. Plans include a new nature center and expansion of an old favorite, a closer look at a recreational master plan, a new recreation center with the first public pool built in nearly 20 years in Mecklenburg County, and a political convention that will make active use of park space in and around Uptown Charlotte.

That’s a big year.

“We’re very excited about 2020,” says Al Brown, Treasurer for Partners for Parks. “We have wonderful opportunities to increase our partnerships with Park & Recreaction.”

Lee Jones, Director of Mecklenburg County Park & Recreation Department, is looking forward to continuing the success the department enjoyed in 2019, and finding ways to reach out to the public and bring them to the parks and facilities.

“We’re looking into new ways to market what we offer as a department,” says Jones about the ways the department is telling Mecklenburg County residents about all of the facilities and activities Park & Rec offers. “We’re increasing marketing, being more consistent on social media, and looking at our brands more closely — even bringing in a third party review of our Master Plan.”

Jones says the County is only required to seek accreditation every five years for Park & Rec, but the department reevaluates its progress several times a year to make sure goals and objectives are up-to-date. He is grateful for the partnerships that help take local parks and facilities to the next level.

“We look forward to working more closely with partners like Partners for Parks, OSHA, and accreditation commission to make sure we’re on the right path,” says Jones.

The Summer Concert Series and Open Streets 704 are two event series that magnified the partnership of Partners for Parks and Mecklenburg County Park & Recreaction. The Summer Concert Series welcomed Roots & Americana bands on four Friday nights over the summer to First Ward Park in uptown Charlotte. Open Streets 704 brought a record-setting 52,000+ people out to enjoy two afternoons of car(e) free streets in some of Charlotte’s most popular neighborhoods around and in uptown.

Jones says they’d like to spread the popularity of the Summer Concert Series to other county park facilities outside of uptown. Freedom Park has a bandshell that can host concerts, and Reedy Creek Park, in northeastern Mecklenburg County, is another area Jones would like to consider.

And for Open Streets 704, both Jones and Brown are thrilled at the way the well-attended event weaves its route through neighborhood streets and the county’s parks and greenways. Cordelia Park and the Little Sugar Creek Greenway will be part of the fun this spring, along with Veterans Memorial Park off Central Avenue, which was last part of the route in 2017.

“We’re very excited about Veterans Park being added back to the route,” says Brown. “Creating a festival atmosphere at Veterans Park is a huge benefit.”

The new year also brings development for several park and recreation projects now in the works. The Stephens Creek Nature Center in Mint Hill is welcoming guests, and the nearby Ezell Community Park at the former Ezell Farm in Mint Hill will welcome community engagement for its design and development. Latta Plantation and Historic site in Huntersville will welcome a new name, Quest.

Eastway Park is also close to opening in the summer of 2020 with a full slate of activities: two pools (one for training, one for leisure), training classrooms, outdoor recreation areas including nature programs, senior programs, demonstration kitchen and teaching kitchen, outdoor programming, and programming to take advantage of natural features of the site (streams and tributaries, plants and animals), and a bit of history — an old horse track!

“We are very excited about Eastway Park,” says Brown. “We’ll talk about how we can use the space for our awards and programs next year, and give them some attention.”

Jones says events hosted by Partners for Parks at these new facilities will help get the word out to residents about how much the county has to offer them. Partners for Parks also provides a great way for people to donate to local parks through its Memorial Trees, Benches, & Bricks Program, and other grants and donations.

“People always want to do that, and donate to Park & Rec,” says Jones, “so we’ll continue to refer them to Partners for Parks to do that.”

Al Brown says Partners for Parks is ready and willing — so let’s get outside and start Breathing Life Into Our Community!