Consultants hear ideas for new Clinton park
By Randy Bell
An elevated walkway through the treetops. A pond. A multi-purpose trail.
Those were some of the top recommendations offered by a group of Clintonians who attended a community visioning workshop for the new “destination park” the City plans to build on 84 acres south of I-20.
“The priorities are definitely bringing people to Clinton with a focus of it being nature-oriented and creating a space for people not only to come but to stay in the city,” said Jenny Crawshaw, who joined with others at the meeting in a tabletop exercise to create their own designs, using maps of the park site to see how their favorite features and amenities would fit.
Landscape architect Kurt Culbertson told the group of about twenty-five people at the Wood Center on November 10 that it’ll be hard to accommodate all the ideas. His firm, Design Workshop, is partnering with another company, Native Habitats, to come up with a conceptual master plan for the park, which Culbertson says “reflects the desires of the community and allows us to develop a cost estimate in sufficient detail, so the City can decide how to move forward.”
The community workshop follows a series of focus group meetings which generated some initial recommendations for the park design. The session at the Wood Center gave the consultants a chance to test those ideas with the general public.
The next step is to bring back some alternative plans for the City to consider in the spring, leading to a final vision for the park in early summer.
It’s expected to include RV hookups – and maybe cabins and treehouses – to try to draw in travelers from the Natchez Trace and I-20. Outdoor adventure opportunities could include ziplines and a climbing wall, along with bike trails that connect to existing trails in Clinton. The park may try to educate visitors about local history, including a former World War II prisoner of war (POW) camp and a model of the Mississippi River basin, which are located nearby.
Mayor Phil Fisher calls it a “unique opportunity” to design something for the future.
“This is thinking five, ten, twenty, thirty years down the road as you build this park.”
He says grants and public-private partnerships could help pay for the project.
“But first, we’ve got to have a figure and a plan—and lay it out so that they get a vision of what we’re trying to do here.”
It’s not too late to offer ideas about the park design. A virtual interactive website is being constructed to get additional input: ClintonPark.konveio.com.
