Parks can last for 50 or more years.
The Etowah River Park in Canton will be enjoyed by the great-great-grandchildren of the city council members deciding in 2011 how that park will look in 2061. In 2010, the choices for the park and its amenities were decided by the city council using a wide variety of different configurations. A final decision was agreed upon by all city council members last year.
The money available for the park started shrinking and so did the amenities.
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If you love baseball, you would have loved the latest shrunken park configuration, with five baseball diamonds and little else for any other sport or activity.
Fortunately, the city council was evenly split on the non-voting head nod count of the support or lack of support that the Cherokee County Commissioners wanted by July 18.
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Council members Tanner, Goodwin and Rose supported going forward with the new plan and Bryant, Rush and Beresford were against. The mayor, without expressing his personal preference, decided that an evenly split council should step back and perhaps consider other options.
Fifty years from now, there may be sports other that baseball that are desired by these athletic great-great-grandchildren. Baseball diamonds are hard to use for anything but baseball; MLB and the NFL have tried for years without much success.
We have to offer our children and young adults every opportunity for success even if we do not know what that is today. A very narrowly focused park is not the answer.
Thank you, mayor and city council, for not being rushed into a decision that is less than the best for the future of Canton.
