MACON, Ga. — There is a new addition coming to East Macon's North Highland community.
They're working on building a new park, right in the middle of the neighborhood.
"North Highlands nickname is 'Macon's best kept secret,'" Robert Moreland said.
Moreland has lived in the North Highlands neighborhood for three years now.
He says the history and the people who live there is what keeps the neighborhood alive.
But, there's one problem.
"There's a lot of kids in the street, and cars are flying by," he said.
The Historic Macon Foundation and the North Highlands Neighborhood Association came up with a solution.
"I'm standing at the corner of North Avenue and Boulevard for the future North Highlands park. This is a very exciting opportunity for the neighborhood, and our organization," Ethiel Garlington said,
Garlington is the director of the Historic Macon Foundation.
Garlington says, the foundation has been working on a "saving places" initiative, and North Highlands was one of the places that caught their eye.
"We asked people what places are important to them, what places mattered, and this piece of land was historically a park. A lot of people told us about the park and this opportunity kind of presented itself, where we already have the land and we need a park in this neighborhood." Garlington said.
Garlington says he spoke to people who say this park is needed because so many kids play basketball in the street, and it's just not safe with all of the traffic.
"We thought that this would be a good safe way for kids to play basketball in the park. We also got good feedback on keeping the old growth trees that are here, and some other amenities that we are still working on," Garlington said.
Numerous trails being one of those projects.
"We are so excited about this. A lot of people don't know about this neighborhood, I feel like this park will show people how valuable we are. It's going to get residents outside more, certainly enhances are neighborhood and benefits us in a great way," Moreland said.
You can expect this park to be up and running by next summer.
Garlington says, they want to thank the Community Foundation of Central Georgia for the $180,000 grant that made this park possible.
OTHER HEADLINES