Dothan community comes together build playground

Calvin Moore carried a bag of concrete one minute Saturday morning and swung a sledge hammer a moment later as he joined nearly 50 people in an effort to complete the city of Dothan’s second community build.

Moore, along with several neighborhood residents, members of the Dothan Police Department’s SWAT team and Dothan Fire Department, the Department of Leisure Services along with several other city officials worked for more than five hours to build a playground at Gussie McMillon Park. Gussie McMillon Park is located off East Burdeshaw Street near Shirley and Pryor streets.

“It will give the kids more space to run around and play,” Moore said. “I’m from this community, and you have to give back something.”

Kim Meeker, assistant director of Dothan Leisure Services, said the community build had a dual benefit, which included a cost savings to the city and providing the neighborhood a place for its children to play.

Meeker cited the employment of a consultant to the supervise construction and help in the planning as the city’s only cost to the project, which would have likely cost the city at least $10,000.

“The other advantage is you get community buy in, they want to take care of it,” Meeker said. “They take pride in the park.”

Workers enclosed the playground with plastic orange protective fencing to keep people away until the special ordered mulch was delivered later in the month.

Mary Hayes said there will later be a memorial bench dedicated to her brother, Larry Corbitt, a retired employee with the Dothan Department of Leisure Services. Corbitt was murdered in 2006. Hayes said members at the church she attends on East Burdeshaw Street, Freewill Baptist Church, already use the park for church socials.

“He’s from this area, and this was his dream,” Hayes said. “He wanted to see it come to a reality as a park.”

Roshonda Buggs said the park has already become a favorite for her family, including her two children, Travarius Buggs, 7, and Wisdom Watford, 3. The park already included two roofed picnic areas encircled by a paved walking path.

“We usually go to Walton Park. Now we don’t have to drive over there; we can walk here,” Buggs said. “I think it will help the community. Most of the kids don’t have no place to go. It’s going to stop them from hanging out on the street corner.”