Oconee County Parks And Recreation Department Got SPLOST Funding For Five Projects

The Oconee County Parks and Recreation Department has received approval to spend $220,000 in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue in Fiscal Year 2014 for five projects, including completion of the paved walking trail in Oconee Veterans Park.

Also included are funds for a net and shade protective cover at the youth fields at Oconee Veterans Park, for a restroom between fields five and six at Bogart Sports Complex, for recoating of tennis courts at Oconee Veterans Park, and for emergency public address systems and equipment at all of the county’s parks.

All five of these projects were included in the budget request Parks and Recreation Department Director John Gentry made to the Board of Commissioners in February, but the Commissioners added $35,000 to the budget after the county learned in March that it had not received federal funds for the walking trail extension.

Gentry told the Commissioners when he submitted the application for federal funds that residents ask him nearly daily about completion of the walking trail.

The funding approved by the BOC will add about three-quarters of a mile to the existing 1.8 miles of the paved trail, making a complete loop and extending the trail into the northern part of the park.

For more on this story, including a map of the new trail, go to Oconee County Observations.