Sonia Brown sat outside, resting in a fold-out chair. Her daughter, Peyton, and her son, Brian, stood beside her.
With lush, thick grass beneath her feet and the sound of laughter and joy echoing around her, Brown watched as families and friends ran across a newly built splash pad. To her left, children and parents enjoyed newly installed playground equipment, built on soft, pliable rubber and cement pads, surrounded by soft turf grass. To her right, Brown had an on-going pickleball tournament in view, and she watched the lines to the several food trucks at the park grow as people became increasingly hungry.
With more than 300 people visiting the park during its grand re-opening, Ted Wright Park was packed — not a single swing, rope course or bridge went without use, and each pickleball court had two or more players. The splash pad was well populated with children in swimsuits escaping from the heat.
Brown, and her children said they would be “frequent flyers” at the newly renovated park.
With the park’s opening, several city and community leaders, city employees and members of the public gathered to commemorate the occasion and “cut the ribbon” on the newly renovated facility. Council members spoke, thanking all of those who worked to complete this project.
Mayor LaRhonda Patrick and Recreation Director Jarred Reneau spoke with The Journal after the ribbon cutting. Reneau called the event “a true picture of community.”
“This is building relationships, this is what my dream was from day one, was to build venues like this so we could bring the community together,” Reneau said. “To turn out on a 100-degree night and all these people are here, it’s tremendous.”
While the park is outfitted with several new amenities such as the splash pad, modernized playground equipment and several pickleball courts, that does not mean the culture of the park has changed. Ted Wright Park has been a neighborhood park for Warner Robins citizens for four decades — city government was careful to make sure the park was still the park so many remembered. Reneau told The Journal that several buildings, the park roadside sign and the beloved caterpillar that almost acts as a mascot to the park, are still there.
“We left a lot of the original pieces here, just because it’s been over four decades,” he said. “We wanted to keep some stuff but modernize.”
Mayor Patrick said that she hoped to spend lots of her time at the park with her family — and she expects that her son will now consider Ted Wright to be his favorite park.
“My son is out there right now, and he already knows it’s close to our house because he’s been talking about it as it was being built,” Patrick said. “This will be our normal weekend spot.”
A 40-plus-year-old park, Ted Wright has served generations. With these new renovations, the park will continue to be a cultural landmark for the city for decades to come. Patrick said that she was proud to have been part of the project, even if she was not able to be a part of its inception.
“It feels amazing to know that we could do what we thought we never could — as a constituent of Warner Robins, I never thought we’d have a park that had this much engagement,” Patrick said.
Sonia Brown and her children visited Ted Wright Park on a day that that 95-plus degrees. The humidity was high for much of the day, and the park itself was full — parking overflowed into a neighboring business’ parking lot and then into the grass areas around it. She told The Journal, “I will definitely be here often.” Peyton and Brian expect to be there often as well.
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