The City of Saluda is planning improvements to memorial park downtown, including new flag poles and a sign to mark the entrance of the park.

Saluda City Commissioners met Monday, Feb. 9 and heard from zoning administrator Jonathan Cannon regarding plans for the park.

Cannon said a couple of months ago the city entertained placing a sign in the memorial park that would identify the park as well as new flag poles. The concrete for the new flag poles has recently been poured and is curing, with plans for the flag poles to be installed soon, city officials said.

The city advertised for residents to submit designs for a new sign but the city received no submissions, according to Cannon. So Cannon said he took the time to come up with some rough designs for the city to consider. He said he thinks the sign needs to fit the character of the park and needs to provide an entryway to draw people to the space. He said in the future, the city could consider providing places for people to sit in the park between the monuments. In the future as well, Cannon said the city may want to consider installing a sidewalk in front of the park as well as landscaping at the entrance.

Most of the memorials at the park are made of granite, so Cannon suggested the sign be made of granite as well. He provided sketches of a three-foot high dark granite sign that would sit at the entrance of the park with landscaping surrounding it. He said the city would need to provide the name of the park, such as Saluda Memorial Park saying names of Saluda residents who have served could also be placed on the sign.

Rough cost estimates for a three-foot high, five-foot wide granite sign came in at approximately $3,500, according to Cannon, including installation.

Resident Ellen Rogers said the city’s parks committee is about to hold its first meeting for McCreery Park, directly across Greenville Street from the memorial park. She suggested the city have some coordination between improvements to the two parks.

Cannon said originally commissioners wanted a sign for this year’s Memorial Day, which is at the end of May. Commissioners indicated they were in no rush and the flag poles will at least be installed by Memorial Day.

Mayor Fred Baisden said he agrees with Rogers on not rushing and tying the two parks together.

“Those two parks are side by side and there should be some continuity,” Baisden said.

Commissioner Leon Morgan said one of the trees in memorial park was planted by the family of Greg Granger in his memory. Cannon said the city should tag any trees in the park that are known to be planted in someone’s memory.

Commissioners decided to turn the design of memorial park improvements over to the parks committee.