Alton Park residents have requested the development of a park at the old Charles A. Bell School site for more than a decade. They've participated in meetings and surveys, but the site remains a vacant, overgrown lot.
Residents, including long-time Alton Park homeowner Milton Jackson, are beginning to question if anything will ever happen.
Jenny Park, left, speaks to officials as they tour the 45th Street Park to get an idea of what they should do with an empty space in Alton Park on September 17, 2015. "We've had a lot of talking," he said. "I haven't seen anything on paper."
But Chattanooga City Councilman Chris Anderson assures residents the park will happen. He took city and park officials on a tour of Chattanooga parks this month to get ideas about what they wanted to see on the Bell site. Requests for qualifications - a pre-bidding step - go out at the end of October. The design team may take about six months to draw up plans for the park, and residents can expect to see a park within two years, city officials said.
Anderson says it will be the project of which he's most proud at the end of his term.
"The money is solid," he said. "It's going nowhere. We can't spend it on anything but this. Government projects just take a little bit of time."
The school sat vacant from 1991 to 2011, when it was torn down. Jackson said he's been talking about the Charles A. Bell site becoming a park since 2000 after the federal government sent a $35 million HOPE VI grant to create the Villages of Alton Park.
It's been more than a year since the City Council allocated $1 million to build the 10-acre park.
Other residents have talked of having ball fields and a recreation center on the site.
Anderson's tour group included residents Rosemary Porter of the Villages at Alton Park, Tony Hare of Alton Park and Terry McCullough, president of the Oak Hills Neighborhood Association. Hare also is chairman of the South Chattanooga Advisory Council.
The tour group also included Alison Bullock, a community planner with the National Park Service, whom residents invited to help bring the park to fruition.
The group visited Milliken Park on 45th Street, Jefferson Heights Park at 1800 Jefferson St. and St. Elmo Park off St. Elmo Avenue.
Local government and other officials tour Jefferson Heights Park and other parks to get an idea of what they should do with an empty space in Alton Park on September 17, 2015. After visiting Milliken Park, with its swings and sliding board catering to younger visitors, Alton Park residents requested the park at the Bell site include activities for children ages 10 to 18.
"That's the group we're losing," McCullough said.
He said residents would love to have a pavilion for outdoor entertainment and a basketball court.
Jenny Park, the city's strategic capital planner, suggested that one way to draw more attention to Milliken Park and the Bell site is to have a path connecting the parks. The parks are within a mile of each other.
She also asked if residents had considered walking paths and athletic fields for the Bell site.
Hare said he appreciated all the suggestions. He noted how the community worked cleaning up and planting trees to establish Milliken Park, and said he expects the same enthusiasm for the Bell site.
"We're pushing for the revitalization of this area and hopefully, with the help of Chris Anderson, we're getting it done," he said.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at 423-757-6431 or yputman@timesfreepress.com.