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Our Mission

Welcome to the website dedicated to the Antioch Community Park revitalization project.   Our mission is to raise sufficient funding from the private and public sectors to enable us to renew and reinvent Antioch Community Park; providing the northern Franklin County community a first-rate public facility where all persons can enjoy outdoor sporting and leisure activities.

The Park Yesterday 

Antioch Community Center (presently “Park”) originated in 1950 as a 15 acre gift to the community by the late G.C. Flora and his wife, Virgie T. Flora. This park at all times will have a group of nine trustees overseeing the park. (Please see past and present trustees).

Over the first several years, a ball diamond was constructed and the park was referred to as Dugwell Ball Park.  In the early 1970’s, tennis courts and basketball areas were added. The remainder of the park was used by local dairy farmers for producing corn and various grasses for their dairy operations.

Over the years, many groups from the immediate and expanded Franklin County community have been able to use the facilities in the Dugwell community.  The Franklin County Parks and Recreation used the facility from the 1950’s to 1970’s for baseball and softball league play.  Church leagues were created and held at the park and a tennis ladder was created with men and women singles and mixed doubles (at times there were as many as 50 + people participating in the tennis ladder).  The addition of lights made it possible for many of the local dairy farmers to participate in numerous sporting activities.  As a matter of fact, the majority of the participants were dairy farmers.

The Park Today

After the County Parks and Recreation centralized much of the recreation play in the 1980's, some of our parks became run down from lack of use.  During this time, Antioch Community Park fell into a state of disrepair and the park facilities became unsuitable for public use.   

Now fast-forward to 2002... The population growth in Franklin County and youth involvement in outdoor activities is increasing.  Therefore, the need for community facilities has increased.  Franklin County Parks and Recreation Department has done a wonderful job trying to meet the demands of our youth and families, but the reality is that we have a shortage of outdoor recreation and practice facilities.  Those that have young children involved in sports realize how difficult it is to find a recreation facility to work one-on-one with their children.  Organized sports teams dominate these facilities.  Those who like to get out and take a walk, have to do so cautiously because of the increasing traffic on our roads.   This shortage of practice and recreation facilities and limited outdoor leisure areas for walking and public enjoyment  in northern Franklin County led to much interest  in revitalizing Antioch Community park.

The Park Tomorrow

In May of 2002, discussion started to renovate the park.  The first job was to spray poison oak, lots of it.  As the trustees started the movement towards park revitalization, we invited Scott Martin (Franklin County Commerce and Leisure Services) to talk to us about the strategic direction of Franklin County's community parks.  His second visit directed us to the Board of Supervisors to request money for the revitalization planning of the park.  The revitalization team was pleased to find that there was money there for those who want to improve their community with such a purpose as ours and the Board provided the necessary funds to conduct an initial feasibility and engineering study.  Hill Studios in Roanoke met with us and after several visits; John Parker (Hill Studio) presented the trustees with our plan.  Based on the Hill Studio engineering study and plan, we have grouped our park revitalization efforts into 3 phases:

Phase I	Moving earth, planting grass, planting trees, creating a walking trail and public parking.
Phase II	Construction of a ball diamond, soccer field, sand volley ball area and horseshoe pits.
Phase III	Construction of tennis courts and basketball areas.

On January 10, 2005 we had a community meeting to present our plan to anyone interested. Over 100 people attended.  Our goal then was to become 501 (c) 3 and start our project, a goal realized in November 2005 when we officially became a non profit organization under 501 (c) 3.  The key to our revitalization project will  be funding through donations from the Franklin County community.  To this point, we have been blessed with community support of money, time and equipment.  With our funding and donations to date, we have been successful in beginning the first phase of our renovations, as demolition of the old has been completed and earth moving is currently taking place.   We will continue to successively work together on each phase until the park is completed, with the activity and timeline all depending on the level and continuity of donations.

In Franklin County, families that play together, stay together.  

God, family, friends and health…..  That’s about it, that’s what we’re working on. 

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Copyright © 2009 Antioch Community Park
Last modified: March 15, 2009