A new way to exercise

The greenway trail at Civitan Park is no longer exclusively for walkers and joggers.

As part of a $350,000 grant, David Vinson, the director of Trussville Parks and Recreation, led an effort to install new outdoor exercise equipment along the trail.

There are five exercise pods spaced out over roughly a mile. There is something for everyone, Vinson said: there’s a climbing wall, a stationary bike, balance equipment and more. If a person walks a little bit and stops at each station to use the exercise equipment, that person will have a full-body workout by the end of the mile.

“There’s something designed for each body part as you move along,” he said.

The installation of this equipment came at a perfect time as the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily closed gyms and caused many people to feel wary about returning to the gym. Because this equipment is outdoors and spaced out over a mile, Vinson said it’s a safe alternative to going to a gym.

“The greenway has gotten a lot more use since this has all been going on than it had before,” Vinson said. “It was very popular anyway, but it’s really popular now.”

Being outside is important to Vinson, he said, and he tries to use the greenway trail as much as he can.

“It’s a good way to get adults and kids out of the house,” he said. “Get them into an environment that should be safer. Even if this [pandemic] wasn’t going on, I think it’s a great thing for people to have and to keep them outside.”

In Vinson’s 24 years as the director of Parks and Recreation, he has also dedicated other projects to refreshing the greenspace corridor behind the public library. He wrote the grants that paid for the new playground there — called Masonic Park — and then he wrote the grant that added a new bathroom facility to the playground.

Next, the $350,000 grant will also help Vinson and his team update the ball fields located behind the library, which Vinson said have been there since about the 1950s. The fields will have new fencing, lighting, drainage and landscaping and will look brand new, he said.

“This is going to tie it all together,” he said. “The whole corridor will be new. We wanted to fix it up because that area was old and looking bad.”

The ball fields, which are typically used for Little League baseball and softball games, should be ready for the fall season, he said.

“I think the community is excited about them,” Vinson said. “They’re getting ready to play on them.”