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It has been about a year since the Cawaco Resource Conservation and Development Council awarded Jemison City Park with a grant to fund park improvements, and on April 11, Cawaco RC&D and its supporters returned to survey the impact.

Cawaco RC&D supports education and community development projects across Central Alabama.

“We appreciate the money, and have done the best we could with it,” Commissioner Steve Langson said.

Present for the announcement were Senator Cam Ward, Representatives Jimmy Martin and April Weaver, Programs Manager Patti Pennington, Langston and City Administrator Shannon Welch.

Since the park received the $5,000 check, it has added a portable softball fence, replaced the wood in the ballpark dugout and bleachers and upgraded the press box, according to Langston.

“Then we put some stuff in the park down under the trees, just for a little bit of [aesthetic] purposes,” he said.

“Y’all took a little money and went a long way with it,” Drayton Cosby of Cawaco RC&D said.

Langston said the portable softball fence has had the greatest impact.

“It gives the kids a place to play ball,” he said. “This really, really helps the young ladies in this area.”

The park would like to steadily upgrade, according to Langston

“If possible, we would like to upgrade our fencing because [of] the age,” Langston said. “We would like to do some stuff to the pavilion area, and just make it nicer.”

Pennington advised the park to select priority projects and the determined the steps needed to complete them, “and give us a step of that.”

“Our grant cycle is still open, and parks and recreation is still one of our top priorities,” she said.

For more information about Cawaco RC&D, visit cawaco.org.