Pendleton King Park reopened, Tuesday morning, with fanfare and an eager crowd in tow.
The city hosted a grand reopening event at the 64-acre park, complete with a ribbon-cutting and presentations by District 2 Commissioner Stacey Pulliam and Pendleton King Park Foundation chair Rob Dennis.
Visitors could get in line to get free hot dogs and soft drinks on behalf of the Parks and Recreation Department, while their kids could jump about in a bounce house (or climb the M48 tank on display in front of the pavilion).
The park had been closed for nine months due to substantial damage from Hurricane Helene. John Deere has been working to clear much of the downed trees and debris, while there’s still work for some volunteers among the park’s five gardens in the coming weeks.
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After so long without the usual volunteers tending the gardens, “the weeds are taller than the plants,” explained Diane Sprague, president of the Pendleton King Park Foundation.
“We’re just grateful to be open nine months after probably one of the biggest disasters Augusta ever see,” she said.
Irrigation to the Hydrangea Garden has been restored, while there’s still work to do on irrigation to the Camellia and especially the Azalea Gardens, which was hit particularly hard during the storm.
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“We’ve been lucky we’ve had so much rain lately, we haven’t had to rely on the irrigation as much,” Sprague said, noting that the storm had downed at lot of the larger trees that provided shade for the azaleas. “It’s definitely not the park it was a year ago. It’ll be a different park, but it’s going to be nice.”
Augustans and other locals seem glad that they can return to the park, after passing by over nearly the past year to check whether visitors could come in.
“I was just happy to see it open,” said Melissa Efflandt. “It was always a great place to come in and little something for everybody.”
The storm largely spared larger structures on the property, such as the gazebos. The Bark Park is still closed for the time being, but that allowed Cori McDaniel, who before would regularly travel from Evans to walk her dog there, to traverse the park’s trails.
“I would have just taken my dog there and left,” said McDaniel. “And so now I’m able to just find out the other things that are going on, and I’m allowed to explore the park more because of that.”
Pendleton King Park is located at 1600 Troupe St. in Augusta.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
