Published 10:07 am Monday, November 2, 2026 THOMASVILLE — City officials broke ground on Balfour Park renovations Thursday afternoon, marking a momentous occasion for the historic park, which will include a splash pad and inclusive playground. The project reflects years of hard work and community input gathered through public engagement and a visioning charrette, which helped establish priorities for future parks, features, and programming. “When I first came onto the City Council five years ago, the City had just done a master study of all of our parks in Thomasville,” Mayor Scott Chastain said. “To my surprise, and probably to yours, we have over 20 parks; we have 22 parks the city has to maintain and keep up.” At the time, Chastain learned it would cost $11 million to bring the parks to baseline standards. “We knew that was not going to be possible, so we had to make some decisions about what our community really wanted and what our community would really get behind and what we felt like the City could accomplish,” Chastain said. Over the past five years, Chastain said the Council has been dedicated to improving the parks, working with the professional design team at Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. to develop a design concept for Phase 1 of the renovations. Planned improvements include a pavilion, new restrooms, playground equipment, a splash pad, and enhanced parking. The projects will be funded through a combination of grants and Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax…
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