City of Thomasville enhancing amenities at Paradise Park and Cassidy Road Park

• Thomasville is enhancing its parks with new amenities like restrooms and trails.
• The city of Thomasville is launching a social media campaign to encourage neighbors to visit parks in celebration of Parks and Recreation month.
• Watch the video to learn more about new upgrades to your favorite parks.

BROADCAST SCRIPT:

Neighbors in Thomasville have access to more than a dozen parks.

I'm tracking how the city is working with a national association to keep those parks ready for everyone to enjoy.

Thomasville is known for its parks and gardens. They have seen an increase in vistiors since COVID pandemic.

Mike Owens, Parks manager in the city of Thomasville tells me people are now looking for ways to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

"COVID made a lot of people appreciate being outside and being able to go recreate and do what you do," said Owens.

Owens tells me more neighbors are turning to parks for better physical and mental health.

"There's a lot to do, you can play on the playground with the kids, you can walk around or run around the track and what I see a lot of of people do is they just come and relax ," said Owens

I met with Sarah Brumbley and Martha Ansley, two sisters that visit Cherokee lake park almost everyday.

"I think It's very important, you can get a lot of problems walking this mile," said Martha Ansley.

"I bring my grandkids out here a lot because they've got the play ground, they have got the the geese and they get to feed the animals and fish, they do fish here, "Sarah Brumbley.

Now the city's focus is on maintaining those parks and adding more amenities.

"We're probably not looking at building anymore parks but we're gonna try to maintain the ones we have, update them as we can," said Owens.

The city plans is to add more amenities to existing parks. That includes updating paradise park and adding restrooms this year.

For 2025, more amenities are going to be built for Cassidy road pond following $998,800 grant they received last June.

"There's no amenities out there as we're looking at adding a walking trial, and a restroom and another disc golf course," said Owens.

Throughout the month of July, Owens tells me the city will launch a social media campaign to promote the parks and encourage people to go more often.

"We show the parks and show our hard working staff and what it takes to maintain these parks and we also show what you can do in different parks ," said Owens.

The city will wrap up Parks and Recreation Month on July 27th by showcasing different activities and sports happening around the parks in our neighborhood.