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DILLWYN – As summer quickly approaches, families will seek more opportunities to spend time outside. Even though all the work won’t be finished for this summer, two Dillwyn parks are receiving some much-needed changes. 

The smaller of the two projects will take place at Buckingham Community Park, located at 93 Main St., Dillwyn. This location has a playground and a covered pavilion with 12 picnic tables for families to spend time outside and reserve to host gatherings. Currently, the site is only equipped with portable toilets. According to Buckingham County Administrator Karl Carter, the county is placing an advertisement for a bid to build permanent bathrooms for the park. 

Unfortunately, there is no time frame yet for when folks can expect these bathrooms. However, Carter hopes that a bid will come in quickly and work can get started in the next month. 

The much bigger project will take care of Gene Dixon Sr. Memorial Park located at 204 Cotton Alley Road, Dillwyn. This project is much bigger than adding a set of bathrooms, which is one item on the list. This park is where youth baseball and football teams play, bringing many community members to the site. 

“Residents who live in the county have been affected by this field one way or another whether it was them who played or their child or grandchild,” said Carter. “This is something that is very needed.” 

Lights on all fields at Dillwyn parks

One of the biggest parts of this project is putting lights on all the fields. Currently, only one of the baseball fields has lighting. This means a vast majority of the games need to end while there is still daylight, causing them to occur in the heat of the day. Along with the lights, the plan is to put another baseball field in to help spread out the games as well. 

Along with the lights, the park will get a new building that will serve as the concession stand, bathrooms and announcing booth. There are currently bathrooms and concessions at the park, however, this addition will spread folks out, create shorter lines and quicker bathroom breaks. Carter compared it to the setup at the Field of Dreams in Prince Edward County. 

“It will be nice to have multiple bathrooms and concessions for parents to go to while watching the game or taking their kids,” said Carter. 

This project is still in the planning phase as cost is still being calculated. According to Carter, the cost is somewhere over $1 million dollars as he is looking at how to best fund the project and pay for as much of it with grants as he can. As he and many of the board members have attended games at this park, they are aware that this location is a centerpiece of the community that needs to be invested in. 

“It’s also something that will look nice in the county and can open the door for us to hold tournaments here,” said Carter. “It will be something to be proud of.”