AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Welcome to a city playground, but with no one around. That’s pretty common in Augusta, according to the city park use study.“My thought here is that if you invest in parks, people will use the parks. If you don’t invest in the parks, people will not use those parks,” said Commissioner Jordan Johnson.One of the parks getting little use is Heard Avenue Park, one of the four listed as least used. The others are A.L. Williams, Barrett, and Vernon Forrest. In all, 21 different parks are deemed underutilized, and now could be closed.“It’s time, and it is up to the commission to do that. So I don’t know why some of them are not jumping on board. Let’s sit there and X out the ones that we don’t need,” said Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice.All four of the lowest scoring parks are in Commissioner Jordan Johnson’s district. He says what’s not needed is closing parks to save money.“To take money away from quality of life during the time people need it the most does this community such a disservice. I don’t think that we need to shut down parks to save money,’ said Commissioner Johnson.But some in Augusta argue if parks are under used, those maintenance dollars could be go to funding a new park in the Jimmy Dyess area.“Close some of these parks because it’s pretty much a lot of resources that we’re putting into parks people don’t use. However, in our area, we do not have a park and we’re the fast growing area in Augusta,” said Patricia Geter, who is a Neighborhood Activist in the area.
Commissioner Johnson is not against that.
“When you have places for people to enjoy recreation, it makes every community better,” he said…