An area across from the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center that one day will be the city’s Veterans Park will get a slight makeover to beautify the triangle of concrete and pavement.
The work will improve an area that Mayor Rusty Paul has previously called a “wasteland” during community meetings.
“That place has justifiably been called the wasteland and the staff is sick and tired of me yelling and screaming and begging and crying about doing something there,” he told the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods at its annual meeting on April 22.
City Council approved a $263,285 contract with Tri Scapes of Alpharetta at its June 15 meeting to remove concrete from the property along Roswell Road, between Mount Vernon Highway and Johnson Ferry Drive. Only the flat section of land between Roswell Road and a public safety vehicle cut-through will get concrete removed and sod replaced.
The project includes installing approximately 25,000 square feet of sod and irrigation connections, new fence and bushes along the length of Johnson Ferry Road, Deputy City Manager David Wells said.
Other work would require extensive grading, Wells said. That’s because the eastern part of the property drops off. Part of the site is also in a brownfield, he said. To clean up the contaminated soil they will have to go 25 feet into the ground, he said.
The design for the Veterans Park is under contract. The city hopes to have it constructed in time for Veterans Day in 2022.
