Article

Take Them Horses to Lorton

Fairfax County Park Authority Meeting at Sangster School,
February 21, 2001, regarding upgrades at South Run Park

By Dave Wilson

On February 21, 2001, the Fairfax County Park Authority held a public meeting at Sangster Elementary School. The topic of the meeting was upgrades of the facilities at South Run Park. The meeting was attended by approximately 250 people. I did not see any senior county officials or elected officials at the meeting. It was essentially an opportunity for everyone to stand up and express their desires. The only rule in effect was a time limit for speakers.

There were a number of proposals made, which I have listed below generally in the order of the number of people making the proposals and/or the number of times the same proposal was made:

Build additional athletic fields for soccer, lacrosse, softball/baseball, and rugby.
Dedicate at least an acre of land as an enclosed dog run.
Remodel the field house into a equestrian facility, and build additional outside horse facilities including trailer turn arounds, etc.
Build an indoor walking/jogging path
Increase the size of the swimming pool to Olympic standards
Build a small facility for skate boarders.

The most organized presentations were made by the horse groups. Their position is that the only non-commercial horse facility in the county is at Frying Pan Park, and that it is too far distant and too difficult to get to for daily riding. They stressed that there were several hundred horses (700) and many youthful riders.

The most entertaining presentation was made by two teenage boys proposing the skate board facility. The allowed that the audience, on whole, didn’t look too young, and so were perhaps out of the age where they might be interested in taking up the skate board.

Unable to resist the attraction of an open microphone, I got on the speakers list. At about 10:00 pm my turn was up. I said Lake Forest, a community close by South Run Park supported:

More athletic fields
An indoor walking/jogging track
A large dog park
A skate board facility
A large equestrian facility somewhere in Lorton.