Youth Sports center receives grant to restore fieldhouse following vandalism

ANDERSON CO., (WSPA) – Anderson County recently received a grant worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate Hurricane Springs Park after reports of malicious vandalism.

Hurricane Springs Park is known as a key spot for recreation.

“[It] Serves hundreds of teams every year. They have football, baseball, soccer and other sports. It’s one of the most used parks in that area,” said Matt Hogan, Anderson Co. Deputy Administrator.

Anderson County leaders said the fieldhouse was vandalized back in February 2022.

“They went into the concession stand at the baseball fields and completely just went through and vandalized severely by pulling out electrical wires and spray painting. They pretty much trashed it,” said Hogan.

The fieldhouse has since been cleaned up and locked down making it unusable.

Thanks to Senator Richard Cash, the county will be able to use a grant of $450,000 to bring the fieldhouse back to life.

“It’s been needing upgrades for a long time, so it’s getting heating and air upgrades, plumbing, electrical and a whole new paint,” said Hogan. “It will be completely rehab there.”

The plan is to renovate restrooms and add more awnings for shade.

The park already has pickleball courts, picnic shelters and ADA accessibility improvements.

“When someone comes and vandalizes while we’re making progress, then that kind of puts it back,” said Hogan. “That community and Anderson County as a whole, we take pride in those parks and want to make it the best it can be so that’s part of this upgrade.”

Leaders said it won’t be long before upgrades begin.

“You should be able to see these improvements in the next couple of months,” said Hogan. “We have all of the specifications, the bid package, the design and everything. The staff has already put that together. We’ll put that bid out, that will come back so hopefully this fall you start seeing some improvements at that park.”

Officials said they will install security cameras with a portion of the grant money.

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