First United Methodist Church (Downtown, Connections and 4m Party Barn Church campuses) in partnership with the City of Paris and other local businesses.
It is our dream that the Downtown Community Park will be a welcoming, interactive family environment. It will come with a harmony musical playground, splash pad, green space, walking path, food truck court, public restrooms and spaces for downtown and church parking. The fully landscaped city block (two blocks east of The Plaza) will be open to ALL and will lend itself to special events, parade viewing, and planned downtown activities.
This was truly a community wide collaborative effort. First United Methodist Church entered into a partnership with the City of Paris and had other partners quickly join them to reach the goal of funding and building this park. The total cost of the park was 1.2 million dollars. Our lead gift, of $100.000, came from Liberty National Bank! Hayter Engineering offered their services as a huge in-kind gift! These two gifts encouraged other partners to come together to raise approximately $500,000 (cash and in-kind gifts) from the Paris community and beyond. The church offered 40% of a city block for the park itself and funded $700,000 of the project to finish out the entire city block as a park and landscaped parking space.
MAJOR PROJECT PARTNERS
First United Methodist Church
City of Paris
Liberty National Bank
Hayter Engineering
Richard Drake Construction
First Federal Community Foundation
Keep Paris Beautiful
Guaranty Bank and Trust
Judy Bawcum
The Paris News Carmage & Martha Wall Foundation
Lamar National Bank
St. Joseph’s Community Foundation
Dan Wardlow
Jordan Willard
Dr. A.J. Hashmi
Paris Texas Main Street Promotions
The new Downtown Community Park will open in March of 2016! It will be a place for ALL of God's children where EVERYONE is welcome!!
