A small neighborhood park—proposed and designed by nearby residents, but open to the public—could be built next year on vacant land along Barber Street at the end of Boulevard. Athens-Clarke commissioners last week approved the neighborhood's plan for the passive park—trails, playgrounds and, eventually, a small amphitheater—on about two acres of wooded land that was donated to the county in the 1960s.

"Boulevard Woods would be a very well loved park," Rachel Watkins, a self-described "Boulevard mom," told commissioners before they voted. But Tennie Brookins, who would be its nearest neighbor, said, "I'm not the happiest person in the world about the park being next door to us." She asked for assurances that a promised fence will indeed be constructed.

Commissioners approved the plan 8-1, with Doug Lowry dissenting and Alice Kinman absent.

The park plan has been a neighborhood project for several years. Over 80 residents, including landscape and design professionals, volunteered for 2,200 hours, according to www.barberstreetparkproject.net. Except for Chase Street School, whose grounds are open to the public, but not during school hours, there are no other parks in the area.

Volunteers have initiated other ACC parks and trails in years past, including hiking and bicycle trails, the Five Acre Woods neighborhood park on Northside Drive and the skate park, World of Wonder playground and planned tennis center at Southeast Clarke Park.

More pocket parks could be in Athens' future. County staffers are developing evaluation criteria for turning odd bits of county-owned land into neighborhood parks. The well organized efforts of the Boulevard Neighborhood Association won approval on the condition that costs, including a fence to separate play areas from the street and $750 for a crosswalk, will be met by the neighborhood association, not by taxpayers. Commissioners OK'd the requested crosswalk across Barber Street, even though it doesn't meet ACC standards for where crosswalks are needed. But the county does not have plans to add a shelter at the nearby bus stop, as the association requested.

Officials estimate the park will cost $68,500, likely including donated labor and materials. If the neighborhood can raise money and quickly wrap up negotiations with ACC's Leisure Services department, which will oversee construction, "I'd love to begin doing some actual construction in January," Dan Lorenz of the neighborhood group told Flagpole. "But this is more of a hope than a prediction."

Later in the meeting, AthFest organizer and commissioner Jared Bailey addressed what he called an attempt by "outside agitators" to disrupt AthFest. "(A)n effective plan was created to deal with this potentially problematic situation," he said at the July 3 meeting. Police monitored members of PinPoint Evangelism, which had warned local government in advance that they intended to preach at AthFest and that they were prepared to defend their legal right to do so. The Kentucky group did indeed preach at AthFest for hours. "It was quite a spectacle," Bailey told Flagpole. "I guess it added something to the festival." There were no serious incidents.

Speaking through bullhorns, the PinPoint preachers attracted a large but not-very-sympathetic crowd of more than 100 people, Bailey said, including a number of local protesters who argued with them. "They're anti-gay. They're anti-alcohol. They're anti-everything," he said. "They were not preaching; they were harassing." In some cases, police officers placed themselves between preachers and protesters. "These people are really confrontational, and they have caused some major problems" in other places, he said.