Leisure Services Waiting To Finish Cane Creek Paving Until Expansion Gets Underway

Cane Creek Park paving not including in Cookeville Leisure Services budget for the coming year.

Director Rick Woods said the department has made great strides so far in paving parts of the park. He said there is still a portion left on the upper trail on the south side of the lake and other areas that connect to the parking lot.

“We have projects in the future that it doesn’t make sense to go ahead and pave those areas right now because we’re going to be having traffic through there to do a park expansion,” Woods said. “So it makes sense to wait until we do all of that.”

The expansion includes an additional 42 acres that were acquired over the last few years. Woods said they are in the process of finalizing the plans of the expansion, which will include additional parking and expanding trails.

Woods said they will put off the paving of the road and other areas until that part of the park is well underway. He said they have signed a three-year grant contract to get that work completed.

“And I anticipate it will take most of that time, a year or two if we can move through it quickly,” Woods said. “But usually with state grants, it doesn’t happen really quickly. So I anticipate it taking a couple of years to get all of that completed.”

Woods said those areas in the current Cane Creek Park that still need paving are more difficult to get to. He said it will make more sense to wait until expansion is in progress before trying to tackle the existing areas.