CITY PARKS

People jog down one of the trails at Battle Park.

The Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation Department offers essential services to people in the community who are in pursuit of leisure, entertainment and recreation.

The city’s athletics division offers yearround youth and adult athletic leagues and sporting events. Pre-COVID, there were approximately 40,000 participants and over 100,000 spectators in attendance at athletic facilities.

The Rocky Mount Recreation Services division operates two community centers. Both centers are open to the public and are easily available to be booked for anyone interested. The South Rocky Mount Community Center is located at 719 Recreation Drive and the Booker T. Washington Community Center is at 747 Pennsylvania Ave.

The South Rocky Mount Community Center features a full-length indoor basketball court, outdoor basketball courts, splash pad, playground, football field and baseball field. The center also offers two banquet rooms available to rent. The rooms are perfect for social events such family reunions, wedding receptions and many others.

The Booker T. Washington Community Center offers activities for people without athletic pursuits. The center is equipped with a computer lab with internet access and the latest version of Microsoft. There are also two banquet rooms available for rental.

Rocky Mount manages a variety of parks

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and trails for the entire community to enjoy. The 7.1-mile City Trail System links several parks, when combined cover nearly 300 acres of parkland. The trail system begins in Sunset Park, follows the Tar River through Battle Park, crosses the river at StithTalbert Park, travels into Dr. Martin Luther Jr. Park and ends at the Rocky Mount Sports Complex.

The Tar River Paddle Trail comprises 10 canoe and kayak locations that connect over 55 miles of the Tar River and Stoney Creek.

Sunset Park is probably one of the most popular attractions in the city’s Parks and Recreation park system. It features basketball and tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, boat ramp access to the Tar River, an 18-hole disc gold course, baseball/softball field, skateboard park, four picnic shelters and playground and a concession stand.

The Amusement Center at Sunset Park is open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The center includes a historic miniature train, antique carousel, spray park and bug kiddie ride. Admission to the Amusement Center is $5 per person while children 4 and under are admitted free.

Best Friend’s Dog Park is also part of Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation. It’s an off-leash recreation and park setting for people and their pooches to enjoy. Best Friend’s Dog Park consists of nine acres divided into three fenced areas: one for small dogs and two for large dogs. The park is open from dawn to dusk except for scheduled maintenance.

The Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation Department offers a variety of events for the community.

Antwain Dunston shoots the eight ball into the corner pocket during a game of pool in the South Rocky Mount Community Center.

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Speaking of the dog park, local resident Amber Hunter said, “It has a nice small dog, big dog and agility park. It is a great place to go if your pups need some interaction with other dogs or if you don’t have a large backyard. My dog gets so excited when he hears “do you want to go to the park?”

Park patron Samantha Green echoed Hunter and said, “The park is huge and allows for your dogs to really stretch out and just run. I love that this park has an obstacle course that the dogs can have a blast at from jumping through hoops and bars and climbing. This park has water fountains and little kiddie pools. Overall, this is a simple yet excellent dog park.”

The Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation Department offers a variety of events for the community. The community can expect to enjoy lawn chair movie series, festivals, live theater performances, yoga, art classes and gallery exhibits.

The department caters to those who want to participate in athletics, those who want to socialize, hang out with dogs or learn a new skill. Its mission is to “advance the quality of life by providing positive, inclusive experiences through people, parks and programs.

LJ White splashes through the water in the spray park at Sunset Park.

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Over the last year, Nash UNC has continued to provide superior quality healthcare during our response to the COVID-19 pandemic while also adding new services that our community needs. As chairman of the Nash UNC Board of Commissioners, I am pleased to review many of those new services, accomplishments, and improvements with you.

As the COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak in our community, Nash UNC was prepared and responded quickly under the leadership of the board, executive team, and a COVID-19 Task Force that included physicians, staff and departmental leaders. This team guided our organization during one of the most challenging times to face our hospital and community. We continued to provide needed medical care in a safe and clean environment for our patients, community, and staff, and also developed new services to help address the pandemic. Nash UNC developed a state-of-the-art COVID unit and opened an outpatient COVID infusion clinic that administers monoclonal antibody treatments to COVID patients to reduce their risk of hospitalization.

We also focused on a community COVID-19 vaccination program to ensure an equitable and accessible rollout of the vaccine in our area. Nash UNC’s mobile vaccine team administered more than 3,000 vaccines at community events, area businesses, faith-based organizations, and the walk-in clinic at Nash Day Hospital. Including our staff vaccination clinic and community clinic at Eastern North Carolina Medical Group, more than 17,000 vaccines have been administered. We remain committed to vaccine education and equitable vaccination opportunities for our entire community.

Though we were faced with a challenging year, we also made strides in expanding health services. By working with UNC Health and our community, we added new providers to expand service offerings in cardiology, ENT, orthopedics, general surgery, urology, infectious disease, and more. These new providers have made our area their home and are enjoying being involved in our community.

New partnerships expanded the services we are able to offer our community. The Nash Breast Care Center and OIC Family Medical Center teamed up to offer 3D mammography services at the Specialty Care Center in the Rocky Mount Event Center. A new partnership with Rocky Mount Urology allows us to provide care to our growing urological patient population. Our general surgery practice has grown from two providers to five, and UNC Orthopedics at Nash moved into an expanded space with on-site orthopedic physical therapy.

Thanks to the Nash UNC Health Care Foundation, we expanded our community paramedic program and developed an inpatient food pantry to address social determinants of health, such as access to home medical care and proper nutrition. The Foundation raised more than $230,000 to support programs that improve health outcomes and access to healthcare in our community.

This past year, we received national quality of care recognitions. The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization that collects and reports hospital performance data each year, gave Nash UNC an A rating for both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 reporting periods. We also received national recognition for our heart and stroke care.

We provided 14 scholarships for nursing students at Nash and Edgecombe community colleges, as part of our Nurse Scholars program. As community events ramped back up, we provided health education, vaccines, and employee volunteers to support.

We could not have accomplished this much during such a challenging year without the dedication of our staff and medical providers. I am excited to continue working together with our community to continue improving how we meet your healthcare needs in a safe, accessible, and high quality manner.

Sincerely,

John A. Barker, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Nash UNC Health Care

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