Central City Park turns on lights after a decade

Residents of Grove Park, The Bellamy or any late-night walkers traveling to and from the Irwin Street parking lot who were instilled with a fear of the dark by any 1990s Nickelodeon shows can now rest easy. Milledgeville officials have provided a flashlight.

Light fixtures surrounding Central City Park, also known as The Pit, are illuminated for the first time in about a decade. The park will still close at night fall, but those passing by can feel a little safer, according to Director of Public Works and City Marshal Jack Graham.

“Nothing is on the table yet (for opening the park at night),” Graham said.

About 10 years ago, the city decided only one-third of the light fixtures currently surrounding The Pit were necessary to turn on at night because it is illegal to be at the park after sundown, according to Philip Joiner, a Milledgeville City Council member and GCSU alumnus. Since then, apartment complexes such as Grove Park and The Bellamy along with the Irwin Street parking lot have developed as neighbors to the park, causing students with late-night campus or downtown activities to walk home with low lighting.

“When we had a different budget crisis, we cut the lights back,” Graham said. “Now we have the new apartment complexes, though.”

Members of the Marine Corps’ Platoon Leaders Course runs at the park at 6:45 a.m. and said they have enjoyed the recent change.

“It’s nice to see in the dark spots when there used to be low light,” said Bryce Martin, part of the PLC and freshman general business major.

Georgia Power flipped the switch Feb. 25, but the bill hasn’t been figured or delivered, according Graham.

Public Safety does not plan to change it number of patrols around The Pit, according to GCSU Support Services Agent Greg Williams.

“We constantly patrol (The Pit) at night because it’s a high-trafficked area,” Williams said.

Posted by Claire Dykes on Mar 5 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry