Park plans

As they sat on their back porch basking in the sun and planning afternoon carpools, Marti and Troy Baily watched their four boys — Taylor, Trevor, Tucker and Travis — playing kickball with friends in the yard Monday afternoon.

“Our home is kind of a central location in the neighborhood, and we always have a lot of kids here,” Marti Baily said.

Her husband noted that it would be nicer and safer, however, if the children could play in a place a little farther from the street. They laughed together as Troy Baily added that the kids’ football and baseball games can “get pretty hairy with all these windows around.”

The Bailys, who live on Greenwich Circle, are one of the many families in this west Columbia area who are awaiting a final decision from the City Council regarding the planned development of a new neighborhood park that has been in the works for more than 10 years. The 9.39-acre Smith-Manhasset Park, proposed by the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department, has been scheduled as the topic of a March 6 public hearing before the council.

The park is planned for property at the west end of Manhasset Drive. The land features a blue-green pond that would be the centerpiece for the park and is surrounded by a natural buffer of trees. Mike Hood, Parks and Recreation director, said the park would include a basketball half-court, a small nonreservable picnic shelter, an open play field, a soccer and baseball practice area, a gravel walking trail and a playground.

The park would cost an estimated $142,000. About $25,000 worth of labor would be provided by the parks department, and the rest of the money would come from the city’s special sales tax for parks.

During the design phase, parks department staff met with representatives of the Hamlet, Quail Creek and Stoneridge neighborhoods. Hood said they also conducted a survey of neighborhood children, who expressed strong support for a basketball court.

A quick walk around the neighborhood explains why. On Monday, two young girls dribbled basketballs up the sidewalk while a nearby group of nine children, ages 2 to 12, gathered in a Medford Drive driveway for a game of after-school basketball. Across the street, a group of parents sat on beach chairs in Ed and Denise Harris’ driveway, talking among themselves while watching their kids play.

Ed Harris, the father of 8-year-olds Zachary and McKenzy and president of the Hamlet Homeowners Association, noted that a family-oriented park would be ideal for such a neighborhood. Using the vacant land for a park, he said, is better than allowing other development, particularly for traffic reasons.

“From a family standpoint, the park’s a good idea,” Harris said. He noted that while there is another park in the area, it’s too far from his street for young children to walk to by themselves.

The park proposal also calls for a cul-de-sac to be built at the west end of Manhasset Drive, which now comes to an abrupt dead end.

Earl and Margie Ray were out for an afternoon stroll Monday with their dog, Casey. They said the park would be a fun place for their two grandsons to visit when it’s done. And Casey, they said, would appreciate using the park’s trail for nightly strolls.

The city identified the need for the park way back in 1994.

“It was just a matter of pulling the project together,” Hood said.

The council will hold the public hearing at its Monday meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at the Daniel Boone Building. Margie Ray said she hopes all goes smoothly.

“We’re glad the park will be in the neighborhood,” she said. “We are anxious for them to develop it.”