With relatively mild temperatures for the first day of July in Augusta, people casually walked their dogs along the paths of Pendleton King Park while children climbed atop the old tank. Nearby, the clanking of chains signaled the disc golfers had made their shots.
It was just a typical day at the park —except that it wasn’t.
July 1 marked the park’s reopening with a ribbon cutting ceremony after having been closed to the public since Hurricane Helene cut its destructive path Sept. 27, 2024.
“Out of the 71 parks that we have in this city, this was one of the parks that was hit the hardest,” said Alphonza Williams, deputy director for Augusta-Richmond County Recreation and Parks, during the ceremony.
Some volunteers who helped with the cleanup recalled the massive effort to make the park safe for residents and allow for the reopening
TomMac Garrett and Taylor Snyder with the Augusta Disc Golf Association visited the site in February and saw the massive, downed trees throughout the 64-acre park.
“We walked through it in February, and I think we went ‘if we open near July, that’s a dream,’” said Garrett.
The disc golf course runs throughout the park near its fence line; the group’s volunteers installed the final baskets Monday to ensure it would be ready for Tuesday’s reopening. He and Snyder tested them out for good measure Tuesday.
Multiple groups helped get the park reopened including crews from the city, Master Gardeners from around the area, the Georgia Forestry Commission, Ceres Environmental Services, John Deere and Infrastructure Systems Management.
Rob Dennis with the Pendleton King Park Foundation said he knew the park had a lot of supporters, but the storm drove it home.
A few years back, they’d installed a vehicle counter and found that 15,000 cars came through the park over a two week period. He thought that might’ve been too high.
After Helene, the amount of phone calls they received made him think “that number might not be high enough,” he said.
There’s still some work to be done. The bark park has signs indicating that it is still closed.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
