New park feature could become amphitheater at Filmore Thomas Park

The family of a Bellevue community activist and other neighborhood leaders received a special tour Wednesday of the progress underway at a new west Macon park.

The several dozen in attendance were able to view the transformation of an area once overgrown with grass and large mounds of dirt into a park with basketball courts, splash pad, walking trail, pavilion and more. Construction on the $1.7 million Filmore Thomas Park, led by contractor Stafford Builders, is on track to be completed in October.

Details on a new park feature — a concrete pad for educational purposes that could become an amphitheater — were announced Wednesday by Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Al Tillman, who invited people to get a sneak peek of the park.

Some money, possibly in a future SPLOST, could be used to build an indoor facility and to complete the amphitheater.

“This park has potential to grow,” Tillman said. “This educational pad could turn into an amphitheater that could seat a thousand people.”

The Log Cabin Drive park is on the site of the former Durr's Lake and was once home to a skating rink and bowling alley. In December, members of the Thomas family, Macon-Bibb officials and residents were on hand for the park’s groundbreaking.

Thomas became a figure in the community as he pushed for improvements and helped organize the Macon bus boycott in 1962.

Thomas’ grandson R. Lockett Jr. said the park will be a flagship for Macon.

“We are excited about the unlimited potential of the park and thank the citizens of Macon, mayor and Commissioner Tillman for having the insight to correct the oversight that’s plagued this community for years,” said Lockett, who is directing a Friends of Filmore Thomas Park group. “It adorns (my grandfather’s) name but embodies the hearts and minds of the Bellevue community.”

The Rev. Ronny Mays remembers when black people were not able to go to the skating rink during its heyday. Years later, as the demographics of the neighborhood changed, there was some skepticism if the park would ever be built. Mays was among the neighborhood residents, many of them a part of the Bellevue Concerned Citizens group, that attended government meetings for years, advocating for the recreation area.

Finally in 2011, the project received funding when Bibb County voters approved the special purpose local option sales tax. Seven years earlier, voters narrowly turned down a SPLOST with funding for the park.

Mays said although it took a long time, he kept faith that it would happen.

“If you looked at what’s here and what’s coming, it’s going to be an awesome park that accommodates families and children so they can have a safe place to play,” said Mays, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1959. “We kept the faith. We just believed that with Christ all things are possible.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2016 at 5:38 PM with the headline "New park feature could become amphitheater at Filmore Thomas Park."