This sign off Highway 195 south of the Winston County Courthouse marks the site where future development is planned for a park honoring the heritage of Double Springs. The sign has been up for quite some time, with no visible work done on the property.
DOUBLE SPRINGS - The lack of any visible progress on land set aside for a community park brought concerned residents to the Monday, Oct. 9, Double Springs Town Council meeting.
Hartley Ostlund, Kerrie Lewis and Mylea Williamson, representing the community service team of Lippert Manufacturing, presented Mayor Elmo Robinson and town council members with several questions and concerns about the proposed park.
“Where are we at with that?” Lewis asked Robinson and council members.
“The group that was doing it, got so outrageous with it and, of course, we were going to have to be the ones that took care of it,” Robinson responded.
“We kind of backed off on it,” the mayor added. “We’re still going to do something with it, but it’s going to be a lot less than what they (park committee) had originally wanted to do.
“They were wanting to drill a well and pump water out of the ground and everything else,” Robinson continued. “That gets kind of expensive when you do something like that.
“We are going to try to do something later on with it,” Robinson added.
“What does that mean, later on?” asked Ostlund.
“Well, we’re working on the pool right now, so we’d like to get through with the pool then start on that maybe,” Robinson responded.
The council has discussed at previous meetings building a new pool at the town’s ball fields between highways 278 and 195, due to the deteriorating conditions of the present pool located at the Double Springs Community Center--conditions that resulted in the town closing the pool this past season.
“You think we can have the park done by CityFest next year?” Ostlund then asked. CityFest is held annually in September.
“We’re willing to jump in and help, do whatever we want to do because I think it would be a great benefit to the city. It will be a great benefit to the community, period, but it would be a great benefit for CityFest,” Lewis pointed out.
“We grew CityFest quite large this year, probably the biggest that most of us have seen,” Lewis continued.
Lewis suggested a pavilion or a gazebo be placed on the vacant lot, so entertainers could perform.
“The problem we are going to have down there is not a lot of parking,” Robinson said.
“For CityFest, there is not a lot of parking anyway,” Lewis responded.
“We’re hoping to have the pool done by May (2024),” Robinson stated. “Maybe we’ll have some time to work on this (park).”
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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