Downtown Park to Cost Approximately $32,000

Dacula's new downtown park will soon have a few additional features.

The Dacula City Council unanimously approved the expenditure of up to $10,000 to construct a retaining wall, do additional site leveling and install landscaping on the grounds around the . The gazebo, sidewalks, amphitheater seating and the new improvements are expected to cost a total of approximately $32,000, all of which will be funded through SPLOST.

The park has not yet been named, but Mayor Jimmy Wilbanks said he hopes to have a name selected by Memorial Day.

"We have asked for names," Wilbanks said. He asked that residents send suggestions for naming the new park to mayordacula@att.net and added that he has also  in his effort to create a list of appropriate name choices. 

In an , Wilbanks explained the significance of the park and why the name is important.

"Our new downtown urban park connects us to the past. It helps recall those public areas that were used in the past and are now gone and brings to the future opportunities to mingle, meet, greet, argue, engage in world-changing activities, and, sometimes, to just get away from the work-a-day world," Wilbanks wrote. "The yet-to-be-named park reminds us of our past and the folks who went about their daily lives and helped make the Dacula of the past into the Dacula which will be our future."

In other business, council also unanimously approved the new Georgia Emergency Management Agency statewide mutual aid and assistance agreement. The agreement, which will run through 2016, provides financial assistance to participating governments in the event of an official declaration of a natural or manmade disaster.