Groundbreaking held for new Dalton park

Published 10:40 am Friday, August 4, 2017

DALTON, Ga. — Dalton Parks and Recreation Department Director Mike Miller pointed to an area just off the Haig Mill reservoir thickly tangled with trees and shrubs and vines.

“I know you can’t see it, but that’s a diamond,” he said. “It’s a diamond in the rough, but we are about to cut and polish it for everyone to see.”

Miller spoke Thursday morning at the groundbreaking for the Haig Mill park near St. Joseph’s Catholic Church off of Haig Mill Road.

The project is something that has been talked about for more than a decade. But it took the passage of the 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), which provided the $5 million In funding needed for the project, to make it happen.

“It was just time,” said Miller. “Everything came together.”

The expected opening date of the park is August 2018. It will include a 3.1-mile walking/biking trail around the park, fishing piers and a boating dock for paddle boats and canoes, a picnic pavilion, an amphitheater/outdoor classroom and a nature-themed playground. Miller says people can bring their own kayaks and canoes or rent them at the park.

“We won’t have any sort of motorized boats,” he said. “This is still a reservoir for drinking water.”

Dogs will not be allowed into the park, either, because of clean-water concerns.

Dalton Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Chris Gregg says he believes the park will be well used.

“It’s something our citizens will enjoy, but I also believe that it will bring people in from outside Dalton and even outside Whitfield County,” he said.

While they say the park will be impressive when it opens, officials say they have even bigger plans. There’s room for a lodge that could be rented out for events. Officials are seeking private funding or grants for that.

And the park will ultimately be connected to the rest of Dalton through the Mill Creek River Walk which will start near the Chattanooga Avenue pocket park and run along the side of Mill Creek north about a mile toward the reservoir, linking to the hiking and bicycling trail surrounding the park.

The River Walk will not be built with SPLOST funds but with grants and private donations. The Dalton Civitan Club has pledged $20,000 for the project and McKee Foods, the maker of Little Debbie snacks, has donated $20,000. City officials say the funding they receive will determine whether the River Walk will be just a rough hiking trail or something more elaborate.

“I’m really excited,” said Mayor Dennis Mock of the Haig Mill park. “When people have a chance to see this, they are going to love it.”

“I can’t wait to bring my fishing pole,” said City Council member Denise Wood.