Thousands petition to bring safety upgrades to Diamond Lakes Park
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta’s Diamond Lakes needs improvements, and this is not the call by just one person–there are nearly 2,000 calls for change.
On Tuesday, these thousands of voices behind a petition about improving Diamond Lakes were heard by Augusta commissioners.
It took 35 days and more than 1700 signatures for one South Augusta neighbor to figure out what he and his neighbors have been saying for years: South Augusta is tired of feeling overlooked.
Most of us see a park, but Frank Howard sees a place worth fighting for.
“I love this park, I love South Augusta, and everybody else wanted to make sure that something is nice inside of South Augusta,” said Howard.
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Howard comes to Diamond Lakes Park to watch his 8-year-old grandson play football.
“When they park on the side of the street, there are no lights over there, there are no sidewalks,” he said. “A lot of people come out here to this park. They enjoy coming out here, but still, you know, there are a lot of complaints about what’s going on out here.”
To Howard, the problems are not hidden but ignored.
“But if I went out and got signatures and what people think they should be done in the park, I thought that was the best way to go,” he said.
Howard took more than 1700 signatures to those in charge, with a project named in honor of his daughter, who died more than 30 years ago.
“I saw what she was doing, speaking out,” said Howard. “She didn’t look for anybody to recognize her or go for anybody. She did it on her own. So that’s what I would do.”
He saw what wasn’t working and got to work.
“It’s not about me. It’s not about Frank Howard, but it’s about the people of South Augusta,” he said.
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Some commissioners say there are other much-needed improvements for the park.
Commissioner Brandon Garrett says he hopes that by Howard getting their attention, this gets the ball rolling to move forward.
Now, the city and the parks and recreation director will meet, and they’ll report back to commissioners in two weeks with their findings.
Also discussed on Tuesday, commissioners voted to move forward with an audit of the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
This comes after the city was ordered to repay more than $6 million in unspent grant money, which was supposed to help people pay their rent if they faced eviction.
A short while after this was discovered, Director Hawthorne Welcher was suspended.
The scope of the audit will go through all grant programs to find any misused or unspent funds.
This will take 5 to 6 months to finish and will cost the city around $63,000.
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