The Knox County Engineering and Public Works and the Parks and Recreation departments are working to reconfigure the access points at the Concord Park Fishing Pier in an effort to improve safety and accessibility.
The plan calls for widening the current roadway inside the park and creating new turnaround areas to make it easier for visitors to come and go. The main entrance/exit will remain open, but on Thursday officials permanently closed the other exit near the curve due to its poor line of sight.
The park, which also includes a canoe/kayak launch, is located at 11550 South Northshore Drive. Work should be finished by Thanksgiving.
A lot of this week also was spent catching up on the mowing and weed-eating jobs because of last week’s rain.
We had our heavy equipment operators at John Tarleton Park to work on a water leak and our carpenters spent time at Bower Field, washing and repairing the retaining wall and painting walls and a connection stand.
Our one-man machine Frank Christian installed new signs at the dog parks and spent time mowing. He also repaired some of the equipment and then stopped by Gibbs Park to help work on part of the vandalism. Apparently, some dirtbag tore up the back open field area and drove onto the rubber surface playground.
We also had to fix some lights at the East Knox ball fields and fix the main gate at the workshop.
Last week, I mentioned that the Knox County Parks and Recreation Department will hold its first-ever Trunk or Treat event on Oct. 30. I will still have more details in the coming weeks. Don’t worry! But they also are going to host the department’s first-ever Fall Festival from 1-4 p.m. on Nov. 14 at Tommy Schumpert Park (6400 Fountain City Road).
Visitors can enjoy hayrides and outdoor games. We also plan to incorporate frisbee golf into this event since we have a course there. Additionally, we plan to have a radio station join us to provide music, and the Knox County Library is hosting a craft and story time. We will have more information on this awesome event in the coming weeks.
On the recreation side, sports will resume next week once schools are back in session. That said, adult softball leagues are still taking place at the Sportspark (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings) as is adult soccer at Tommy Schumpert Park (Wednesday and Sundays).
Enjoy these photos from this week’s work:
Tarleton Park water line repair
SporstPark mowing and trimming
Bower Field wall cleaning
Bower Field wall painting
Vandalism at Gibbs Park
Vandalism at Gibbs ParkMike Donila is communications director for Knox County government.