Hartwell Making Plans for First “Pocket Park”

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The city of Hartwell is planning to build small neighborhood parks in locations around town.

At its July City Council meeting earlier this month, the Hartwell City Council voted to install the parks as a way to support and encourage family neighborhoods.

Dubbed “pocket parks,” Hartwell City Manager David Aldrich said the first one will likely be on a .29 acre plot at the corner of Faye Knight Road and Rome Street.

However, Aldrich said no other areas have been nailed down yet.

“We’re just starting to look at some areas where there is maybe some green space in neighborhoods to maybe put a picnic table, maybe a grill, a swing set,” Aldrich said. “That’s why we’re calling them pocket parks. We’d like to do them periodically around town if we can. So we’re just going to get started and see how it works.”

Aldrich said these will be permanent parks where families can go with their children.

For now, he said the pocket parks will be on surplus land owned by the City of Hartwell.

“These would be permanent parks,” Aldrich said. “It could either be property that the City owns and maybe hopefully it might be some small piece of property that someone owns that they would be willing to donate to the City. It would give neighborhoods an opportunity to have some green space where the kids could play, or the family could come grill out and have a picnic, something like that.”

Aldrich said the first pocket park the city plans to construct will cost about $3,000 to $4,000.

After approving the idea, the Hartwell City Council voted to cap the cost of each park at $5,000.

Monies for the park will come from the City of Hartwell’s general fund.