PENNINGTON PARK

Pennington Park Improvements are on the way

STORY & PHOTOS BY BETSY ILER

Improvements are under way at Dadeville’s Pennington Park, from off-street parking and bocce ball play space to chainsaw carvings, maybe a fort wall and a bridge over the creek, said Kurt Pfitzner, who owns the park with his wife, Leigh.

To better utilize the park’s creek area and an elevated strip of land behind the park’s gazebo, the Pfitzners shaped the hillside with a flat area that could be used for lawn games and overflow parking during events. A retaining wall will be added once the drainage study is complete, he said.

“We have planted Bermuda and summer seed grass up there. We’ll add more Bermuda and will use the space for parking. We’ll have horseshoes and bocce ball and those kinds of activities on the grass when it isn’t needed for parking,” he said.

While retaining wall materials and construction will not be finalized until the drainage study findings are reviewed, Pfitzner said he hopes to use telephone poles and incorporate a fort wall into the design.

“We want to create a connection to Horseshoe Bend Park and other forts around Alabama, being careful to not celebrate the forts at the expense of the peoples and cultures that were affected by them,” he explained.

During the excavation of the hillside, Pfitzner found a 1923 Dadeville Coca-Cola bottle. Collectors told him the bottle was quite rare, and the piece is on loan to the Tallapoosee County Historical Museum in Dadeville.

In addition, Pfitzner has invited chainsaw artist Ken Rhodes to carve more tree trunks at the park, as there are a few trees that need to be taken down. When he cut two trees behind the gazebo a couple of years ago, Pfitzner connected with Rhodes on Facebook and asked him to carve faces in the 10-foot tall tree trunks.

“We call them the Watchmen of the Park,” Pfitzner said. “In old Germany, the peasants often walked to the towns to buy their supplies, and they had to hike back through the woods in the dark to get home. They carved faces in the trees to guide them.

“Ken started carving on those tree trunks, and it turned

Always Getting Better

Top: Riprap has been placed below the new parking and lawn game area to prevent erosion as the grass comes in; Above: A lock bridge, similar to the one above, is planned later this year.

out pretty good, so we have plans for a couple more trees.”

Cleanup efforts also are in process at the creek that runs through the back of the park. Overgrowth is being trimmed back, and riprap has been placed above the creek bed to prevent erosion. The Pfitzners plan to build a bridge that will span the creek, connecting the unutilized space beyond the waterflow to the main park property.

“It will be an arched pedestrian pathway, about 10 feet wide,” he said. “We hope to make it a lock bridge.”

Lock bridges have sprung up around the world over the last 15 years or so, greatly influenced by the lock bridges over the Seine River in Paris, France. Couples write their names on padlocks, which are then fixed to the chain links on bridges. The key is thrown into the river beneath the bridge. The ritual symbolizes the unbreakable unions of the couples whose names are inscribed on the locks.

“This utility of the other side of the park is in mind with what we have throughout the rest of the park, but we need to be careful that we don’t add a structure,” Pfitzner explained. “We want to maintain the designation as an undeveloped property. It is the last undeveloped piece of property in downtown Dadeville. The land was once owned by Chief Menawa, and we want to honor and respect its history and continue to improve it so the community can utilize it.”

The couple purchased the park in 2018 to create an outdoor music and arts venue for Dadeville. Since that time, the park has hosted numerous arts events, farmers markets, holiday displays, family picnics and more, all at no charge.

“We don’t allow events that let any person make money on the park, but we’re happy for people to use it for birthday parties, showers and reunions and weddings, all for free,” Pfitzner said. “We don’t allow water events, just as a matter of safety, and we don’t allow any offensive music or activities that would be disruptive to the homes in the area. It’s just a great place for people in the community.”

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