Waynesboro City Council will hold a public hearing next week on a proposed $2.5 million public park overlooking the city.
This is something that is long overdue, and is still not, at this late date in the nearly 20-year planning process, a done deal.
Which is to say, the people who don’t like to spend money on nice things in the city are still in charge of things, and doing things like having lunch at downtown eateries with their minions on the City Council to give them their marching orders.
Sunset Park, on the location of the former city landfill that closed in 2003, has been in the works almost since the landfill closed.
By the way, great idea by the city leaders of yesteryear, right? Hey, let’s put the landfill up on a mountain overlooking the city, so we can all see where our trash gets dumped each week.
Brilliant.
The plan for the 107-acre property of late has been to effort to provide public access to this area for recreational uses.
A better use for that location than, say, using it as the city dump.
The bulk of the funding for the project – just over $2 million – would come from American Relief Plan Act funds.
The city would be on the hook for $125,690 toward the bottom-line costs.
The local government received a VDOT grant in 2018 to make upgrades to the gravel road leading up to the top of the landfill, and to develop a conceptual design for the park.
Mountain bike trails are currently being planned/developed by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition. That effort is being undertaken with grant funding the coalition has received.
I point that out because of the cheapskates who run things here, and are no doubt scheming at this late hour to turn even just one vote in their favor.
This is something that we’ve long needed to do.
It’s time.
Story by Chris Graham
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