Located at 110 Ida Lasseter Circle in Perry, Creekwood Traffic Park opened officially on Wednesday morning. Several community leaders and citizens of the city were in place to witness the occasion, including area children who brought their bikes to be among the first to enjoy the new trail that was created just for them.
Perry Mayor Randall Walker was among those who gathered at the location, and following the official ribbon cutting ceremony; he spoke directly with Houston Home Journal and expressed his delight in having the new traffic park in the city that he manages.
“We’re just continually investing in our youth here in the city, and I think that’s extremely important,” Walker explained. “This is a small children’s park that allows them to get out here and safely ride around and even learn some of the rules of the road traffic here in Perry.”
Pointing at the layout of the traffic park, Walker added, “We have stop signs, street signs, and if you look closely, you’ll see that it’s a replica of our downtown area. So we think that they will have a delightful time getting out here and enjoying the outdoors.” He further stated, “It’s a safe environment given the COVID issues that we have to deal with. So many of the sports have been canceled because of that, so this gives our young people a nice opportunity to come out and play in the outside.”
Walker said he was unsure of how many years the transformed space had been idle. However, he added, “It was one of those things that we needed to do something with. It was not being utilized. Leadership in Perry came up with this idea with Sedrick that we would build this traffic park for the children. They put a lot of energy into this. It was a true public-private partnership in making it happen.
The “Sedrick” that Mayor Walker spoke of was City of Perry Leisure Service Director Sedrick Swan, who explained that the space that is now the Creekwood Traffic Park had previously served as two tennis courts, neither of which had been used in a number of years. The idea was to take the unused space and turn it into something constructive and innovative. “We wanted to create a safe environment for parents to come out and maybe teach their children how to ride a bike or teach them the basics of bike safety,” Swan said.
As a part of the layout of the traffic park, there are signs displaying familiar local street names such as Main, Jernigan, Ball and Carroll Streets. Standing in the middle of the new feature, Swan mentioned that, “There is also a splash pad, distance playground; we have ourselves a ball field and a basketball court, and now we just wanted to add this amenity to the park. So you can, in essence, spend the whole day out here.”
Swan stated that Creekwood Traffic Park, to his knowledge, is the first of its kind in the middle Georgia area. He revealed that leaders of other surrounding communities had come to take a look at what Perry had done to transform the tennis courts and were planning to take the idea back to their own areas for consideration. “I know that there’s one in metro Atlanta,” Swan said, “but I haven’t heard of any others in the state of Georgia.”
The news of the park’s opening stretched beyond the city limits of Perry into other areas of Houston County. Kimberly Spivey is an in-home provider and the owner of Kimberly Spivey Daycare in Warner Robins, which services children ages three and four years old. Not only did Spivey come to be a part of the day’s festivities, but she also brought along with her, five preschoolers. She, along with some of the children’s parents, who were also present, watched and cheered as the students enjoyed their time at the park.
“What made me want to come out and be a part of this is that due to COVID, things have changed with the kids,” Spivey said. “I wanted to give them the opportunity to get out—to come out here and still be a child and have fun.”
Ironically, Spivey said that this week, she was teaching her class how to be community helpers. “This was perfect to go along with what we talked about,” she raved. “For them to see the people in the community come together for a good cause is a wonderful experience to add. This is going to do a lot for the community,” Spivey added. “I’m an advocate in the community, so with me knowing about this, I’m going to take it back and spread it with everybody. I have 12 other providers that I’m connected to who do the same work that I do. I’m going to share this with them. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to get together and take a field trip here. With the bike trail and the splash pad—which I didn’t even know about until today—our kids will have a blast!”
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