Parsons plans regional community park on former airport site

Parsons is continuing to push a regional community park onto the former general aviation airport site at Scott-Gibson Field, a 61-plus-acre property city leaders describe as one of their biggest long-range recreation investments. The first phase is planned for about 10 acres and would give residents a baseball and softball complex, a children’s playground and a family-size pavilion, while the full site is envisioned to grow into walking trails, pavilions, playgrounds and regulation-size soccer fields.

The project also marks a major reuse of land that once connected Decatur County to a new era of transportation. The Tennessee Encyclopedia says Parsons’ municipal airport brought the county into the age of air transportation in 1959, and the former airfield is still being repurposed for civic use. The Hangar Performing Arts Center now sits on the former Scott-Gibson Airfield property, about one mile from downtown Parsons, making the park proposal part of a broader public-campus transformation on the old airport grounds.

The park concept has been in city planning for years. Parsons’ 2012 park-support document tied the idea to a public survey and noted the city then had only one other recreation site, Carl W. Partin Park, with 16 acres dedicated to recreation. City records show the park has already started to take shape in stages: in 2019, Parsons said it had completed three playground areas, a pavilion, a splash pad and two additional ball fields. In April 2023, city officials also linked the park to public health, saying childhood obesity in Decatur County was about 50% and pointing to trails as part of the response.

Funding has followed the phased buildout. In March 2024, Parsons applied for an $80,000 Healthy Built Environment Grant to install lights on the ADA section of the walking trail. In September 2025, a $102,000 Tennessee Arts Commission grant was announced for a covered pavilion at Parsons Regional Community Park and roof repairs at The Hangar. Those public dollars show the park is not just a concept on paper, but a continuing capital project that is being assembled piece by piece.

For Parsons and Decatur County, the stakes are bigger than recreation alone. The city says the completed park is meant to serve youth sports, family outings, school groups, civic clubs, senior organizations and scouting groups, while also supporting exercise across age groups. The next phases will determine how quickly the county gains a larger public recreation network, and how far city leaders can stretch public investment on the former Scott-Gibson Field site.