County could open playground, soccer fields, trails to public by fall - Dan Rodgerson

County could open playground, soccer fields, trails to public by fall

By Paul Alongi

STAFF_WRITER

palongi@greenvillenews.com

Soccer fields, walking trails and a playground are planned for a Greenville County neighborhood where residents have been trekking a few miles to find a place to play.

The county park will be on 38 acres that for years has been considered an eyesore. A locked fence topped with barbed wire now surrounds the property at Beverly Road and Omar Street just north of Greenville.

John Fowler welcomes the $1.5 million park. He said he grew up in the neighborhood and remembers crossing Rutherford Road to use the playground at Wade Hampton Elementary School.

"Kids do need somewhere to go," he said.

Greenville Tuberculosis Hospital occupied the site for more than 20 years, closing in the 1950s. The state leased the building and used it as a work-release center for prisoners from 1974 to 1997.

When the state moved out, teens and vagrants moved in. Graffiti covered the walls, and beer bottles littered the property until the building burned in November 2002.

Tonya Wilson, who has a home and styling salon across the street, said the area on Piney Mountain needs a park. Taking her children, 9 and 12, to play requires a car trip, she said.

"There's nothing around this area for the kids to do," Wilson said.

The charred remnants of the building have been razed. The new park could be finished as early as fall, Dan Rodgerson, executive director of the Greenville County Recreation District, said Monday.

Michael Clardy, who has lived across the street from the property for 28 years, said he looks forward to a park coming. He hopes it will raise the value of his home.

"It's better to be a park than a prison," he said.

Grading on the site should begin soon, Rodgerson said, and as many trees as possible will be saved, as will some brickwork from the old structure.

The site will have a picnic shelter, rest rooms and about 200 parking spaces, he said.

Peggy Harts, who has lived in the area for 35 years, worries about the traffic the park might draw to the area's narrow roads.

The cost of the park will be paid by a state grant and the county's insurance claim on the burned building, Rodgerson said.

A name for the park hasn't been picked.

Paul Alongi can be reached at 298-4746.

Cutline: OWEN RILEY JR./Staff

Stone foundation: A new park will rise from the site of an abandoned tuberculosis hospital that burned down in 2002.

Mugs: Fowler, Clardy

Graphic: Suzie Riddle/Staff

New park

Residents say a park planned for Beverly Road and Omar Street is needed.

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