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New park takes shape
Seeding fields of dreams

SALISBURY POST

Make that several diamonds — of the baseball variety — as well as soccer fields, a lake, playground areas and perhaps even a future Rowan County Sports Hall of Fame.

Those are some of the facilities either near completion or planned for the new Salisbury Community Park and Athletic complex, which promises to be a gem of a recreational complex when fully realized. The complex already boasts four soccer fields and three baseball-softball fields, with lighting, parking and bleachers to accommodate cheering kids and their parents.

Although the site won’t host its first official event, a girls softball tournament, until next fall, the grass is already growing, as are hopes that the complex’s appeal will extend beyond the community’s borders.

And there’s more to come. Through an agreement between Food Lion and the Rowan Little League, the complex will get a Little League stadium and another baseball field as the organization relocates from its current headquarters off Executive Park Drive. In addition to an eight-acre lake, planners are looking at more parking areas, play structures and maybe even another couple of soccer fields.

Officials also have suggested linking the park to the city via a greenway using the Plantation Pipeline corridor. That would have two benefits. It would provide a natural connection to the city’s core, and eventually to other city parks. It also would encourage alternative transportation modes — walking and biking — in our car-dependent culture.

Planners also might consider using neighborhood volunteer groups to help install and maintain landscaping at the complex, or to help raise funds for future improvements. While voters showed their support by passing a $3 million bond referendum, sweat equity is a tangible way to take pride in a first-rate facility, as well as shoulder responsibility for its longterm upkeep.

Although critics thought the parkland purchase a waste of money, it could offer an economic boost. Besides providing residents with space to participate in sports, watch games, or get some exercise on walking trails, the park is likely to draw tournaments from around the state, officials say. That could mean more patrons for restaurants, hotels and other businesses, as well as boosting the city’s profile in the tourism trade.

Even if that doesn’t come to pass, however, the park is a solid investment for the city — one that will provide residents, young and old, with fields of dreams stretching far into the future.