Bartlett residents have been buzzing on social media with questions about all the ground work they are seeing at W.J. Freeman Park.
Parks and Recreation Director Shan Criswell said her department is amidst Phase 2 of a multi-year project to expand and enrich the park. This phase is using a $500,000 grant to add three multi-purpose fields and improve the cricket field, as well as add more sidewalks and finish out a new big parking lot connected to Veterans Park. The parking lot still needs another layer of paving, as well as striping and placement of bollards.
The improved cricket field is the only such grounds in Shelby County, Criswell said. Bartlett has two teams, one of which is the reigning champion, and they play more than a dozen teams from around the South. Teams from Georgia, Arkansas and distant points in Tennessee all come to Bartlett to play cricket.
“Sprigging” for the fields is already done, and the fields are already starting to look green as the small pieces of Bermuda (placed by machine) begin to take root and spread. It’s a more cost-efficient way to grow the grass rather than sodding the fields, she said. All the fields are irrigated.
“Every week it’s going to get prettier,” Criswell said.
Plans are to finish before this fall’s Bartlett Festival, but Criswell said she hopes to see the work completed before Labor Day.
See last fall’s overview story in The Bartlett Express at http://bit.ly/ParkPhases about all five phases of the park’s improvements, plans to connect walking trails and a map of the project.
Bartlett residents have been buzzing on social media with questions about all the ground work they are seeing at W.J. Freeman Park.
Parks and Recreation Director Shan Criswell said her department is amidst Phase 2 of a multi-year project to expand and enrich the park. This phase is using a $500,000 grand to add three multi-purpose fields and improve the cricket field, as well as add more sidewalks and finish out a new big parking lot connected to Veterans Park. The parking lot still needs another layer of paving, as well as striping and placement of bollards.
The improved cricket field is the only such grounds in Shelby County, Criswell said. Bartlett has two teams, one of which is the reigning champion, and they play more than a dozen teams from around the South. Teams from Georgia, Arkansas and distant points in Tennessee all come to Bartlett to play cricket.
“Sprigging” for the fields is already done, and the fields are already starting to look green as the small pieces of Bermuda (placed by machine) begin to take root and spread. It’s a more cost-efficient way to grow the grass rather than sodding the fields, she said. All the fields are irrigated.
“Every week it’s going to get prettier,” Criswell said.
Plans are to finish before this fall’s Bartlett Festival, but Criswell said she hopes to see the work completed before Labor Day.
See last fall’s overview story at http://bit.ly/ParkPhases about all five phases of the park’s improvements, plans to connect walking trails and a map of the project.
