Published Monday, June 23, 2008
Chattahoochee Bend State Park set to open in July 2010
The Times-Herald
Cowetans could be enjoying their very own state park in just 25 months.
The Chattahoochee Bend State Park is set to open in July 2010, according to David Freedman, director of engineering and construction for Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites.
The bond package that includes $7 million for development of the park went on sale June 16. The bond sale will close July 15. Two days later, Freedman and his staff will start interviewing the short list of engineering firms to prepare construction drawings for the park.
"It's just so exciting," said State Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan. Smith was instrumental in getting the park funding in the state budget. "We're going to have an absolutely wonderful destination in our county for our citizens."
The money for the nearly 3,000-acre park, located along Flat Rock Road in extreme western Coweta, was approved in 2006. But the project was held up because of access issues.
In late April, the Coweta County Board of Commissioners approved an access plan for the park. The county will improve Flat Rock Road from Bud Davis Road to the park property, paving the way for the park entrance. County crews will pave roads inside the park, as well, with the state providing materials.
As soon as the access agreement was reached, the state sent out a request for qualifications for engineering firms. Freedman's staff has already reviewed those and come up with a short list of six firms.
Freedman expects to have the engineering firm hired "no later than Aug. 1."
The engineers and architects will likely take about six months to prepare the construction documents for phase one of the park. The engineers will also determine whether the park should connect to the Coweta water system or if they should drill wells.
The completed documents will be sent to contractors for bids. Construction should start by early 2009 and will take at least a year, Freedman said.
Though the construction funding has been in place for two years, no operating funds are yet available.
The plan is to seek the funds in early 2010. That's when the Georgia General Assembly will set the state's budget for fiscal year 2011, which starts July 1, 2010.
On June 3, the county commission chose an engineering firm to design the improvements to Flat Rock Road.
Those engineers are "moving forward" said County Administrator Theron Gay. As soon as they determine the exact right-of-way needs, the county will beginning negotiating with property owners for the right-of-way. There aren't many owners, and Gay said he doesn't foresee problems with obtaining the right-of-way.
One of those owners is Temple-Inland/Forestar Real Estate, which owns 1,500 acres along Flat Rock Road. The land will be developed into a residential subdivision.
The current funds should be enough to develop the tweaked first phase of the park, Freedman said. The estimates are a few years old but should still be pretty good. And though the costs of materials are high right now, "we've been seeing very good bids lately," Freedman said.
Because of the change in access, the layout of the park has been changed a bit. Once Flat Rock Road enters park property, it will wind for about two miles before visitors reach the park office. Plans are to divert the road around the namesake granite, which makes the road longer. The park office will be the first building visitors come upon.
Phase one will include a campground, a fishing pier and boat ramp, a playground, a day- use area and trails.
The day-use area will be near the river. There will also be pioneer camping and more remote hiking trails along the namesake river bend. The park has roughly seven miles of river frontage.
There will be approximately 10 miles of hiking trails, and three to four miles of mountain bike trails, in phase one.
Phase two can begin whenever funding becomes available.
The park has been a long time in coming. If it weren't for the dedication of many Cowetans, though, the park wouldn't be nearly so close to reality, Freedman said.
Gay has been a big help in working out the access and engineering issues, Freedman said. Smith, as well as State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R- Sharpsburg, worked to obtain the money. Warren Budd, a Cowetan who serves on the board of the Department of Natural Resources, put in his work.
And then there was the Coweta Convention and Visitor's Bureau. A few years ago, the CVB approached both the county and the state to see if there was anything they could do to move things along.
The result of that was the general development plan bought and paid for by county funds. With that plan in hand, Smith and Seabaugh were able to get the funding in the state budget.
"I'm glad the community came together," said Freedman. "That's basically why it came together, the community supporting this park," Freedman said.
Otherwise, the money "would have gone somewhere else."
Cowetans who are chomping at the bit to do something for the park won't have much longer to wait. A friends of Chattahoochee Bend State Park group should be forming soon, said Dean Jackson, chairman of the CVB.
Freedman said that a friends group could probably get started just about any time.
There is certainly a lot of cleanup to do. The property is littered with broken glass and trash from years of use.
A friends group is "going to be really important to the park, in terms of turning it into the kind of asset that we all want," said Jackson.
The friends of FDR State Park group works to maintain and build hiking trails, and many other amenities, Jackson said. The Harris County park has "really been turned into a jewel by the friends of the park."
And that's exactly the kind of active organization he hopes to see in Coweta.