Dear Editor,
It is good to see the plight of Jimmy Davis Park getting some attention in the Eatonton Messenger. Thank you to Patricia Jones-Hurt and Georgia Smith for their letters.
The idea to move UGA Extension/4H into the Jimmy Davis Park building had potential but appears to have fallen through due to a lack of consultation.
Now what? The park is in as sorry a state as ever: broken fencing and swings, aging equipment, and splintering black top. The building is closed, and the restrooms are locked. Staff is a distant memory. Half the time, residents are left to mow the grass and pick up trash.
And let’s not forget this is a county facility. Just like the Poole Recreation Center and Oconee Springs Park. Imagine if you showed up with your kids to the Rec Center and found the baseball fields overgrown.
Imagine if you took the family out to Oconee Springs Park and the facilities were locked and dirty.
But apparently, it is OK for Jimmy Davis Park to look this way. The county mutters about vandalism but glosses over the fact that the park has had zero on-site staff for over a decade.
In just the five years I’ve lived in Eatonton, the county has gone from quietly neglecting the park to forming a working group to revive it to then disbanding that group to then attempting (but failing) to disown the park and give it to the city; then tearing down the fence around the basketball court and not replacing it despite the proximity to the road and danger to children; and then reclaiming the park and promising good things to come, then the UGA/4H debacle, and now here we are.
Longtime residents say this has been going on for 50 years, ever since the park was founded.
I suspect that many residents of Putnam County have never visited Jimmy Davis Park – named for one of the county’s first two Black commissioners – but they would be shocked if they did so.
How can our county commissioners justify this sorry situation? What now? More talk and no action? It is hard to have much faith in the county’s latest vague assurances. It is hard to know what our commissioners really think about Jimmy Davis Park. They don’t say much beyond platitudes and evasion, but the poor state of JDP speaks volumes.
The taxpayers of East Eatonton – scratch that, the whole county – deserve better. As Miss Patricia said (in her letter), JDP belongs to everyone in Putnam County.
The community is organizing. Please join us at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, at the American Legion Hall, 280 MLK Dr., Eatonton (right beside the park) for the next meeting of the Jimmy Davis Concerned Citizens group.
We need your help!
Richard Garrett, Eatonton