![Milton Councilwoman Mary Ellen Johnson speaks with TSW Design associate Sarah McColley at the Feb. 12 Carpenter's Park Master Plan meeting. During this activity, participants used fake dollars to indicate which park elements should be funded first. [AARON LITTLE | Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-6510a031-e7b2-613f-e053-0100007f0fbe-81a1b954-scaled.jpeg)
MILTON — The Carpenter’s Park Master Plan meeting on Feb. 12 at Milton City Hall allowed the public to see the plan's progress and give feedback.
Bryan Bays and Sarah McColley, with the Atlanta-based architecutre firm TSW Design, facilitated the meeting.
Based on the October kickoff public meeting and subsequent survey, TSW defined the most important park elements: restroom reconstruction, new playground equipment, upgrades to the picnic areas, a splash pad, more shade and preserving the park's waterways and natural beauty.
Following the presentation of this information, attendees gave their feedback. They could place stickers to show likes and dislikes about current park conceptual designs and preferences of park style elements.
One activity featured a park design Bays called a spoke-and-wheel design. At the center of the park would be a multipurpose building that houses restrooms. Surrounding the building are a playground to the north, a natural lawn, a splash pad, pavilions, a trail on the south side and then the existing wetland.
Participants placed 16 green dots on this map and two red dots. Most of the green dots were on the two boat parking ramps and the splash pad.
Notes on the two red dots asked for a large pavilion by the parking and more boat trailer parking.
Another sticker activity involved selecting preferences of styles for the playground, tot lot, the splash pad and the river access points. Styles available for each included natural, whimsical, cartoonish, military and modern. Based on sticker placements, the natural and military styles received the most votes.
Participants placed comments on the board for this activity as well. Those included making restrooms concrete like those at Bear Lake, integrating murals from Santa Rosa County artists, mimicking the historic look of downtown Milton, adding wifi access and seeking more children’s comments.
"The next step from here is we’re going to take the input … and look at the comments we got (and) incorporate that into the plan," Bays said. "We’ll start looking at details like materials.
"We’ll tighten up relationships between park elements and start putting budget dollars to each area and build a budget for the entire project."
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Carpenter's Park Master Plan moves forward