WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CHATHAM PARKS FOUNDATION?
The Chatham Parks
Foundation is a nonprofit 501C-3 corporation whose purpose is to preserve,
promote and advance the acquisition, use and development of parks located in
Chatham County. The Master Plan for
Chatham County Parks and Recreation lists the top ten activity interests of
residents in the county as walking trails, gardening, hiking trails, basketball,
fishing, biking, swimming, open play at a park, visiting a nature park and
nature walks.
WHY WAS THE PARKS
FOUNDATION CREATED?
In these days of pressure not to raise taxes and to increase the need for recreational facilities and services, many parks and recreation departments have turned to Park Foundations for help.
Park Foundations are independent non-governmental organizations that work with park and recreation departments to perform functions that parks and recreation departments can�t do, such as raising money exclusively for park purposes and as well as accepting property, developing and managing park facility.
This allows the park and recreation department and recreation advisory board to meet its objective of providing park facilities and services to the citizens of Chatham County without relying upon tax money to do so.
WHAT ARE THE
PROJECTS PLANNED BY THE PARKS FOUNDATION?
The Chatham County
Master Plan for Parks and Recreation, adopted by the County Commissioners in
1999, calls for a variety of recreation facilities that will meet the recreation
needs of Chatham residents. The
following are some of the projects that are being pursued by the Parks
Foundation. It is worth noting that
the Master Plan was conceived as a long-term plan to guide the work of the
creating parks across the county. Projects
such as community parks might be implemented in the period of a couple years.
Larger projects such as a district park, or a nature center serving the
entire county, may take 10-20 years to be fully developed.
1. Land acquisition (neighborhood, community, and district park).
2. Land acquisitions (parks, greenways, trails and open space).
3. Development of a community park (25 acre site with restrooms, trails, ball fields, multi-use fields, playground, volleyball court, horseshoe courts, picnic tables, park benches, tennis and basketball courts).
4. Planning of a district park (gymnasium/com-munity center with pool, trails, playground, tennis courts, volleyball court, picnic tables, park benches)
5. Development of a district park.
6. Planning of a special use park at Bells Landing at Jordan Lake. (nature center, restrooms, trails, plant identification, park benches, picnic tables, landscaping.
7. Development of a special use facility.
8. Development of a countywide trails and greenways master plan.
Why parks Foundation?