Town of Holly Ridge moving forward with designing new municipal park

Holly Ridge Mayor Pro-Tem Joshua Patti announced on his Facebook page on Aug. 16 that the town council had decided to move forward with designing a new municipal park at their Tuesday, Aug. 13 meeting.

Patti told The Daily News that the town has a master park plan, and since being elected, his goal has been to make some movement on some of the ideas in that plan.

So, when the town council created the budget for this fiscal year, they decided to make parks and recreation, specifically moving forward with some of those ideas in the master plan, a part of the town's strategic vision for the upcoming year.

Although they have some ideas for what upgrades and new amenities they'd like to see at the park, instead of jumping straight in, Patti explained the town council collectively decided to take a step back and design what they'd like the park to ultimately look like before making any moves.

The town has awarded a contract to a firm that will now spend the next six months designing Holly Ridge's future municipal park.

Patti did provide a list of some of the possible amenities the park could see:

• Splash pad
• Dog parks
• Walking trails
• Recreation center
• New bathrooms
• Picnic pavilion
• Upgrade to jungle gym
• Better parking
• Pickleball courts

"The design's kind of like the first step, and then, throughout the next years, we can plan on completing each individual piece of what we want to complete," Patti said. "The list is not the only stuff that's possible in that park."

According to Patti, the town has already received grant funding for new restrooms, so that's high on the list of priorities, though they will wait until the design process is complete in order to know exactly where to place the bathroom facility.

Patti said the splash pad is high on his list, specifically, and he also knows the ballfield lights need to be redone.

"My main focus is we need to move forward and get some stuff done," Patti said. "I noticed that was one of the big hurdles in the past, and that's what community members are wanting. They want to see some movement."

Patti added that his hope is that they're able to obtain more grant funding, and then as each budget season comes around, the council can budget supplemental funding for whatever phase of the park they're working on at that time.

Patti also said the Holly Ridge community will play a major role in determining exactly what the final design looks like. He said not only will there be surveys that go out, but they also plan to hold some public forums.

"My focus is, as it grows, we can kind of create a park that people are proud of, and they can use," Patti said. "The park is a great place right now, but it's kind of a little old and needs some updates, and we need some more things."

There's roughly 4,500 people that live in Holly Ridge, Patti said, with the town expected to double in the next 4-5 years. So, it's important they keep up with the growth.

"I'm just hoping that we can create something that will benefit all sorts of Holly Ridge residents from young and old," Patti said. "It's going to be a community endeavor to see what gets prioritized and what the community wants to do, but my main focus is, we need to move, we need to get going here. Ideas are great, but let's put our money where our mouth is."

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@jdnews.com.