What's Actually Changing at Pittard Park This Fall, and What's Still Just a Plan
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
Two different projects are going on at Pittard Park right now, and they run on very different clocks. One is under construction. It's paid for with a local civic club grant and Winterville's own TSPLOST dollars, and it's already changing the playground and the overgrown natural area. The other is the one people mention when they talk about a skate park or pickleball courts. It covers roughly eight acres of the old disc golf course, and it depends on a federal grant that Georgia's Department of Natural Resources expects to award in fall 2027.
So the park you'll actually use this winter and spring comes from the first project, and it's worth knowing exactly what that includes.
| Project | Funding | Status as of the Sept. 8, 2026 council minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Inclusive playground, Phase I: Wee-Go-Round | Winterville Civitan Club grant of $62,500, a $39,000 Civitan contribution, and roughly $13,000 in city SPLOST funds | Being installed |
| Inclusive playground, Phase II: Flex-Swing | Same playground package | Planned next |
| Natural area walking path, Walk #1 and Walk #2 | $98,170 and $32,315 in TSPLOST 2023 funds | Under construction by The Flower Power Company |
| Parkview sidewalk extension | $82,270 in TSPLOST 2023 funds | Approved Aug. 11 |
| Expansion onto the disc golf course | Land and Water Conservation Fund grant the city is pursuing | Engineering report stage |
The money for the top four rows is in hand, and two of them, the Wee-Go-Round and the walking path, are already being built. The last row still depends on a grant.
The first change you'll see is the merry-go-round. According to the July 14, 2026 council minutes, the city's Public Works crew demolished and hauled away the old merry-go-round and the surface under it. In its place goes a Wee-Go-Round, a wheelchair-accessible spinner. Its base sits flush with the surrounding surface so a wheelchair can roll right on, riders face each other, and it can be turned from inside or outside.
Phase II is a Flex-Swing, which lets kids recline while they swing. Its sides are wide open for transfers, and it's big enough for more than one rider at a time. The minutes describe Phases III and IV only as "larger expansion plans."
The money behind it is unusually local. The Winterville Civitan Club applied for the grant on the city's behalf and won $62,500, then added $39,000 of its own. That leaves the city's share at about $13,000 in SPLOST funds. The city's July–September 2026 Gazette says the Civitan equipment is meant to make the playground "fully inclusive."
At the September 8 meeting, council heard that the first phase was being installed and "should be completed soon." No date was given, so if you're planning a visit around the new equipment, check whether it's open first.
The second project in progress is the one that changes how you'll get to the park and walk around it. The Gazette explains that the original natural path in Pittard Park's Natural Area had become overgrown. The new hard-surface path replaces it and circles that section of the park, which is intended to serve as a monarch butterfly and bluebird sanctuary.
The sidewalk is the piece that reaches outside the park. According to the Gazette, it will connect to the new path and run down Parkview to the entrance of Winterville Station, giving people there a safe walking route to the park and into town. Funding comes from the Georgia Department of Transportation's Local Maintenance Improvement Grant program plus TSPLOST dollars.
The August 11 minutes put prices on all of it. The $218,000 TSPLOST 2023 package covers $82,270 for the Parkview sidewalk extension, $98,170 for Walk #1, and $32,315 for Walk #2, plus $5,245 set aside for overages. The Flower Power Company won the contract. A month later, the September minutes reported that Flower Power had started building the natural area trail.
There's a naming change coming too. The Gazette says the Pavilion at Pittard Park will be named for Emily Coile Harris.
Most of the bigger ideas are tied up in the expansion project. The city's December 2025 request for engineering qualifications describes converting the existing disc golf course into a community facility. The site covers about eight acres over three parcels, and the plan calls for a new playground, a skate park, pickleball courts, natural-surface parking, and stormwater retention. The city said it intended to apply for federal money through the Georgia DNR's Land and Water Conservation Fund, with technical help from the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission. In March, council hired SPG Planners & Engineers to write the preliminary engineering report, estimated at $5,000 in SPLOST 2020 funds. On July 14, council approved the SPG plan, which includes a skate park and a small pavilion, but left out the parking lot.
The Gazette lists the grant's possible improvements as parking across the street, a permanent stage, a skate park, and pickleball courts. The city calls replacing the playground a top priority, with a target of 2027.
Here's how the 2026–27 cycle works, according to the Georgia DNR's Land and Water Conservation Fund page:
That means a skate park on the former disc golf course is still at least a full grant cycle away. Until then, the disc golf course stays on Visit Athens' Pittard Park listing, alongside a replica of Athens' Double-Barreled Cannon and a BMX pump track.
Construction is happening on top of a park that's already full. The City of Winterville's parks page lists three pavilions, a playground, walking paths, nature trails, open fields, a basketball court, and a commercial kitchen you can rent, all across the street from City Hall at 125 N Church Street.
On Saturday mornings, the park also hosts a market:
Pittard isn't the only park getting engineering work. On August 11, council approved $10,150 in TSPLOST 2023 funds for W&A Engineering to design improvements at Wesley Whitehead Park: youth soccer fields, a reconfigured baseball diamond, a dog park, and the parking, utility, and restroom facilities to go with them. That project is just entering design, so it's further from finished than anything at Pittard. It's also using the same kind of funding that's paying for the new Pittard path and sidewalk.
Jarrett Martin Group tracks Winterville projects like the Parkview sidewalk to Winterville Station block by block, including what each one changes for the streets around the park. Start Your Home Search with a team that reads the council minutes, so you don't have to.
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