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Roland Cooper: Let the clean-up begin!

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Mayoral Candidate Phil Creswell listens in on the County Engineering Office’s game-plan for cleaning up Roland Cooper State Park

(Wednesday, 10:30 a.m.)

It’s no secret by now.

Almost a year after Governmental budget cuts caused it to shut down, we’ve finally received confirmation that Roland Cooper State Park will be re-opened to the public in just a matter of weeks.

Our local city and county leaders were asked to meet at the park Wednesday morning. AL State Parks District Superintendent Kelly Ezell was on site to meet with them, with hopes of putting together a game-plan to have the place cleaned up before Recreational Resource Management (RRM) would commence the Grand Opening in early September.

A crew from Oak Mountain State Park was already cutting down “hazard trees” when our local leaders arrived, a topic of concern brought up by RRM’s managers during a visit last week. An estimated 35-40 trees needed to be dealt with.

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Kelly Ezell, District Superintendent for AL State Parks, negotiates clean-up expectations with Stan Watson and Raleigh Wilkerson, our local Public Works leaders.

 

During their meeting, Ezell asked for the County’s help to remove old playground equipment at Roland Cooper State Park. She also mentioned that RRM is considering doing a liquidation sale. She believes their plans are to sell a dozen golf-carts (which, at this time, are no longer necessary) as well as the playground equipment to Lake Point State Park.

Ezell also mentioned that, next Monday, August 8th, Keith Gentry would be visiting the park to mark any leftover items/supplies worth keeping for inventory. Gentry will be acting as one of the two expected managers to oversee the park. He’s expected to be there at 10 a.m.

But what about the golf course?

RRM has no plans to manage or restore the golf course. However, Kelly Ezell says there’s a possibility it could be opened and maintained in the future. The AL State Parks Department is currently looking for potential lessees interested in managing the golf course. The golf course was NOT included in RRM’s agreement.

4 Comments

  1. larry smith on August 4, 2016 at 11:36 am

    Why is the state turning our parks over to private business.??

  2. Treb Wallace on August 4, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    So…..if they are getting rid of the golf carts and playground equipment is it only going to be lodging?

  3. Mary Margaret Kyser on August 4, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    Will they publish the sale of the golf carts?when?

  4. Chris Katsimpalis on August 5, 2016 at 12:46 pm

    No one answers at the old phone number. When can reservations for cabins be made?

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