MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — The city of Milledgeville is turning to plan b as city leaders say they didn't receive a $4.5 million grant they applied for back in May to improve Central City Park.
Some folks around town say it's past time for a change.
13WMAZ’s Jessica Cha shows you how the park looks today and what the city's plan is to upgrade it.
"I think it's time to do a little rebuilding,” Terrell Harper says.
Harper has lived in Milledgeville his whole life and says he grew up playing on the same equipment the park has now.
"Right now it's 20 years later, it's actually going down. I mean, when I was around here as a youth-- a little teenager running around-- it was way more updated. So, now I think it's time for remodel,” he says.
Harper says he wants the equipment at downtown's Central City Park to be safe for his children who play on it now and for others.
"The youth right now in Milledgeville deserve it. They kept the grass cut and kept everything clean when I was young, I don't see why,” Harper says.
Iris Croasdell is a freshman at Georgia College, which is just a few blocks away.
“Everything is slowly breaking,” she says flatly.
Croasdell says she's new in town, but noticed the state of the park immediately.
"There's this one chain piece that's rusted and falling apart, the swings are broken. There's something wrong with everything,” she explains.
She says the state of the park is depressing because she doesn’t really see any other ones around for kids to play on.
“I think they could just fix little things on the playground and make a little effort for the kids on the playground. That would be nice,” Croasdell explains. “Rather than fix everything and spend a bunch of money, just repair things, at least.”.
City Councilman Walter Reynolds says they're working on a new solution.
"This grant is the ‘Improving Neighborhood Outcomes and Disproportionately Impacted Communities,” he says.
Reynolds says the grant is funded by the governor's office to help low income areas improve their parks and other recreational improvements. He says the money they set aside for park improvements will go much farther with grant money on top of it.
"We'd like to take that funding and use it as sort of a match for this grant, which will allow us to really knock it out of the park when we finally revitalize this area,” he explains.
Reynolds says repairs to the park equipment would not make sense right now because they plan a full upgrade once a grant comes through.
He also says that if you have a concern with the equipment on the park, or think there is an immediate danger, you can call the city to help direct them to someone who can help.