Florence, South Carolina

adds that each of those neighborhood projects contain significant public improvements, in- cluding new streets with new curbs and wide sidewalks, landscaping, and bike lanes; new or upgraded elementary schools; and significant redevelopment of neighborhood parks. “The city has just closed on a $15 million park improvement fund,” Griffin notes. “About half of those funds will go into neighborhood park improvements, investing in buildings and ex- isting infrastructure, putting in roofs, redesign- ing bathrooms, fixing basketball courts, doing fencing, and building playgrounds and two community centers that, historically, have not had a neighborhood center. About $7 million of that money is going into a professional level track and a new baseball complex that will host our little league and travelling baseball players. Associated with those projects is about $2 million that we’re investing in street and trail connectivity, which will go to tying these parks together with pedestrian access points and some bike paths to carry our trail system an additional two miles within the city’s urban area.” Florence has also spent funds on its recre- ation programs. “We recently completed three recreation projects with assistance from the Bruce Lee Foundation and a couple of other partners,” he adds. “We have built a $7 million tennis complex; we recently completed a $4.5 million, three-court gymnasium with adminis- trative offices; and we have recently finished a $9 million soccer complex. We intend to con-