ATHENS, Alabama — It's always tough living near an unsightly patch of land containing an abandoned business. Well, that's about to change in one community. Our Jasamine Byrd found out what's about to replace an old chicken plant in Athens.
It's construction time in the city of Athens. The city of Athens has been awarded $250,000 to turn 32 acres of what used to be an old chicken plant site into a park.
Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks says for the last ten to twelve years, they've been reviewing what to do with this abandoned property in the community, "... you did a story on our Sunrise Park that is an old, abandoned chicken plant that we had. The Pilgrim's Pride left that area in 2008, 2009, Mayor Marks said."
Mayor Marks explained, right now they're working on the park in phases." First, we had to tear down an abandoned site and then we started working on the 32-acre idea and plan for a central park, and the city has already approved several million dollars towards this project."
"This was made possible through the city applying to the Dekko Foundation. They actually visited us in Athens and went to the site on two different occasions and we were awarded a grant from them for $250,000", he said.
Mayor Marks believes this is a great way to do phase one and phase two of the children's playground area,"... it'll be playground equipment. It'll be for special needs children. It'll also be a splash pad. It'll be a changing area. It'll be some other things that our landscape architects and others have laid out."
Furthermore, this is only the beginning for the city. " So again, this is the phase one, and phase two will eventually get to greenspace, amphitheater, the potential for a dog park, and it's a work in progress"
The goal is to complete and open this by spring of next year.