Cookeville’s West End Park will receive security upgrades and maintenance improvements after a meeting with a concerned non-profit earlier this week.
Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said discussions with the group West End Connection centered around upgrading cameras and signage. Woods said the city plans to run fiber to the park that will allow cameras to be monitored. Woods said a number of the projects discussed in the meeting are already underway or complete.
“I appreciate the West End Connection organization and their commitment to make the park a better, improved location for activities for the community,” Woods said. “Our interest, too, is to work with them to make sure that it’s safe.”
Woods said the city is in the process of replacing non-functioning cameras right now. The meeting came a month after Alex Hughes was shot and killed at West End Park.
“West End Park is heavily used and one of the older parks in our system,” Woods said. “It needs to be there available for that neighborhood and for the community at large. It needs to be safe for everyone at all times.”
West End Connection mentioned some maintenance the park bathrooms needed as well, which Woods said has already been completed. The city also plans to install a message board so that groups that intend to use the park know when it will be free and can communicate with one another. Woods said there was also discussion of potentially building a new community center for the park, but that project will require much longer to get underway.
“There’s some low-hanging fruit, so to speak, that we can address right away, but also some big projects that would take a little longer to evaluate, study, complete, and be able to get funding in place to make those things happen,” Woods said.
Woods said the added signage will alert park visitors to the fact that they are on camera, discouraging deviant behavior. Woods said ADA-compliance was also discussed.
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