Crews are busy at a new Franklin park that is expected to become a central hub for activities.
Franklin officials broke ground on the city’s first splash pad Monday, and shared an update on the progress at Youngs Creek Park.
When it is finished, Youngs Creek Park, located on Jackson Street beside the Franklin Farmers Market parking lot, will be home to the city’s first splash pad, an amphitheater with a capacity of 5,000, eight pickleball courts, walking trails, vendor space and the largest playground in the city.
With its central location, the park will naturally become the site of many of the city’s downtown festivals, potentially as early as this fall, said Chip Orner, the city’s parks director.
By next year, the park will host concerts, pickleball tournaments, outdoor movies and other events that residents and visitors can enjoy year-round, he said.
“This is a very big deal and not a lot of communities have something like this,” Orner said.
City officials broke ground last summer, about a year after Franklin bought and demolished the final pieces of property needed to make way for the $9 million park. Since then, work has hit a few snags but is now moving along as fast as the weather allows, he said.
The hope was to have the new park ready for the Franklin Fall Festival, but unplanned additional site work and a soggy spring set the project back about 70 days. Opening the park in time for Halloween Town is still a possibility, Orner said.
The park is mostly funded with tax increment financing, or TIF, dollars, but also with the help of a $250,000 grant from the American Water Charitable Foundation for the splash pad planned at the park, dubbed Spray Park.
The American Water Charitable Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the parent company of Franklin’s water provider, Indiana American Water. The grant is highly competitive and was only awarded to two communities served by the national water utility.
At the Spray Park groundbreaking on Monday, the company announced plans to build on Franklin’s momentum and create a public space around its downtown water tower. Franklin’s investment in the community inspired the Greenwood-based company to do more of the same, President Matt Prine said.
One part of the public space involves beautifying the water tower with a mural depicting scenes from Franklin’s history. The company will work with Franklin’s Public Art Advisory Commission on the art approval process, he said.
The company also plans to create a small park around the water tower that will connect to Youngs Creek Park and the Franklin Greenway Trail along Jefferson Street. The company will remove the fence around the water tower, build a shelter and create an outdoor educational area to teach passerby about the water system, Prine said.
The public space adds to the millions the company has invested in Johnson County communities in the last 10 years, he said.
“We’ve been in Indiana for over 100 years. Sometimes people don’t realize that or what we do. They don’t realize we are in their communities investing in their pipe, their water production facilities and … supplying water 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Prine said.
“We couldn’t do that without making sure our investments are consistent and timely. Over the last decade, we have invested over $64 million in Johnson County to assure the highest quality of water standards are upheld.”
The project is years in the making and one the historic flood of 2008 set in motion, Mayor Steve Barnett said. The park, as it is planned today, came together over the last several years after city officials started the process after another flood in 2017 to buy out businesses that were in the flood plain.
The large greenscape planned for amphitheater seating will serve a dual purpose by soaking up water when the creek inevitably floods each year.
The park is also highly anticipated due to the possibilities it brings for residents and visitors.
“I can’t say enough what this is going to do for our city,” Barnett said. “Not just the Spray Park, but the whole park together is going to bring more people to our city (and) get more people to our shops and more foot traffic.”
The Franklin Parks and Recreation is also seeking additional sponsorships for the park that would help pay for future events and maintenance at the park. The Franklin Board of Public Works and Safety and Franklin City Council approved a park sponsorship agreement template last week.
The first two sponsors are Indiana American Water, for Spray Park and Hubler Ford, for the DriveHubler.com Amphitheater. Other sponsors are needed for other areas of the park, such as the pickleball courts, vendor areas and the bridge over Youngs Creek, as well as future concerts, Orner said.
