Sylva’s migraine and most expensive project ever has wound down to the fun stuff – playing. Town leaders asked the public for input on playground equipment at Bryson Park via a survey and at last Thursday’s public hearing on the topic.
About 233 had taken the survey, up for about a month on the town website. The survey revealed the public wants playground equipment for kids of many ages. Fitness equipment was the least important to respondents.
Two people came to the meeting to voice opinions.
Charles Allen suggested making the basketball court multi-purpose to allow for pickleball and volleyball and other pursuits.
Pickleball is doable, volleyball not so much due to the difficulty in keeping a net in place, Mayor Johnny Phillips said.
Allen also suggested an extension of the pavilion area. He regularly hosts gatherings at Bryson Park.
“Just to get the community together, usually around the Fourth of July,” he said.
Pavilion expansion, new grills and tables are all part of the plan.
Allen is partial to Bryson because his grandfather used to maintain it, he said.
“We used to have to go up there and do maintenance, cutting the grass, cutting the banks, everything,” he said. “And the only thing he got out of that was free water from the town.”
LaShonda Eaddy, a former president of the Jackson County NAACP, appeared before the board to speak for Eleanor Bryson. Eaddy told the board the park was named for Eleanor Bryson’s grandmother, Grace Bryson, and that connection should be taken into account.
According to Eaddy, the manager of the plant across the road sold the land to Bryson for $1 because he saw the need for a park for the Black community.
“I think that you all owe it to Grace Bryson and to the plant manager who sold it for a dollar to explicitly ask the remaining Brysons who are there what they would…
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