News

Apr 28, 2023

Lake City’s Blanding Street Park to get picnic shelter, privacy fence

Two contractors work on the new picnic shelter at Blanding Street Park.

Two contractors work on the new picnic shelter at Blanding Street Park.

Blanding Street Park is slated to receive a number of upgrades. The first of them: a new picnic shelter and privacy fence.

LAKE CITY, S.C. — Lake City is making improvements to the Blanding Street Park with the addition of a picnic shelter and a privacy fence.

The park, which holds a number of baseball fields and a new playground installed two months ago, opened to the public in the early 1990s and was renovated in 2019. City officials are now taking a fresh look at the park, and the two new additions foreshadow larger projects.

"What we are adding in the back will be a football field and also a one-half multi-purpose field, which would be a practice field," said Cynthia Mallette, director of recreation and tourism.

Mallette said the city also plans to add swings for kids and toddlers, a merry-go-round and a dedicated parking space to the playground area.

The picnic shelter began construction last week, and on Monday the concrete pad where the tables will stand was being finished.

The privacy fence was requested by residents who border the park on Graham Road. City officials were out at the park on Monday to take measurements for the fencing.

"We’re going to keep both sides of the spectrum happy, hopefully," said City Administrator William Hall.

Mallette added that the fence will help to protect the children playing in the park by creating a "safe haven" for them even during games at the park's athletic fields.

Funds for the picnic shelter came from the city's capital improvement fund. It cost $50,000, Mallette said.

Other improvements coming to the park include burying the electrical lines and moving away from a septic system, according to Hall.

Recreation is important to the city of Lake City because it gives young people things to do, which keeps them "out of the gang members’ hands," he said.

"The more we are able to give them, the better off we’re going to be," Hall said.

Recreation also teaches children how to work together with their peers and helps to form healthy relationships between them, he said.

"All children need free play," Mallette said. "They need the opportunity to come out and run and climb and jump and swing and play."

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