Bridging the gap

McCallum Park is 31 acres of woodland and open field perfect for residents to relax, play sports or explore. Until January, however, only about five acres were regularly accessible to visitors.

Little Shades Creek cuts through the park, separating those five acres from land owned by the city and the Freshwater Land Trust. Greg Hansen, the creator of McCallum Park’s master plan, said Little Shades Creek is an instant hit with parents and children wanting to splash around or search for fish. 

“When people take their young kids there, the first place they take them is the creek,” Hansen said. “It’s wide, it’s clean [and] it’s shallow.”

However, visitors tend not to cross the creek unless they are prepared to get wet. With funding help from the Vestavia Hills Parks and Recreation Foundation, the city’s parks and recreation department fixed this problem by installing a bridge. Completed in January, the 100-foot stone and wood bridge opens up between 11 and 14 additional acres to visitors.

“By adding a bridge over Little Shades Creek, we were able to open up access to both sides of the park,” Public Services Director Brian Davis said. “There’s more for people to explore a nature setting in a suburban and urban area.”

Leigh Belcher, the secretary of the Parks and Recreation Foundation, said the park improvements were funded by the Partnership in Healthy Living fundraising campaign. Of the $1.2 million in commitments that the foundation has already received, around $325,000 went toward building the bridge and related improvements. Belcher said the foundation is still raising funds for projects at Liberty Park and Sicard Hollow.

McCallum is located on Rosemary Lane and is already a popular spot for picnics, walking, sports and enjoying nature. Hansen said on a typical day he sees children and adults playing flag football or soccer in the open field while families grill hot dogs in the nearby stone pavilions. The park has been used for concerts and movies on the grass.

It is also a natural haven for wildlife, from the fish in the creek to the deer, foxes and turkeys that were frequently seen when Phase One of the park was completed in 2003.

“It offers something for everybody,” Davis said.

As part of the bridge installation, parks and recreation workers also cleared away about two acres of underbrush and added some crushed stone trails to around six acres of the park. Davis said the bridge will also help the city in moving equipment around for future improvements. It’s a critical part of Vestavia’s larger plans for McCallum and other area parks.

The bridge was originally proposed in 2012, but a citizen survey in 2013 showed that a large number of residents wanted more green spaces, sidewalks and trails. Davis said that survey gave urgency to the bridge’s construction and kick-started a series of city projects focused on resident-identified areas of need.

“We are meeting the needs. I wouldn’t say we have met the needs,” Davis said. “We haven’t met all the requests, but we’ve started down that road.”

Future city projects include a 3-mile greenway loop and another bridge at McCallum and sidewalks connecting the Rocky Ridge business district to area neighborhoods. There is no timeline yet for these plans, but Davis said the city is working with the Parks and Recreation Foundation to find grants and other funds to make the projects possible.

“We’re seeking funding so we can continue adding trails here and there,” Davis said.

Belcher hopes the recent McCallum trails and future paths will create safer running and walking paths for residents of nearby neighborhoods and members of Vestavia Hills High School’s cross- country team.

“You have a pretty good area to walk and run,” Belcher said. “It’s pretty flat, which is rare for Vestavia.”

Davis would like to see local Boy Scouts get involved in the future of McCallum Park. An Eagle Scout project could be made out of mapping the park’s trails and installing informational signs on them.

With the bridge roughly tripling McCallum Park’s acreage, Davis said the park is even better at offering residents a change of pace in the midst of suburban neighborhoods, a high school and the nearby Rocky Ridge businesses.

“It is a great place to relax and it is right in our backyard,” Davis said. “It’s so close, but yet you feel like you’re miles away from everything.”