Everyone’s asking the same thing: why is Johnston County’s new regional park taking so long? We’ve heard promises of pickleball courts, fishing ponds, and walking trails—yet the site still looks untouched. Is it money? Politics? Or something as simple as… not enough clay in the ground? In this conversation with Parks Director Adrian O’Neal, I dig into the delays, the big plans, and whether we’ll actually see this park finished before my own grandchildren are grown.

We also talked to Adrian a little bit about the other projects his, his department is working on. The fact that they're getting ready to add four new positions in the next 12 months and more work on the mountains of the sea trail and how that is developing in our county. So if you're interested in parks, including we talk a little bit about the Friends of the Park group that's out there, that's doing great work here.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it's a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on the today's episode we have the County Parks and Rec Director, Adrian O'Neal.

So I think this is gonna be a really, a really good podcast. I'm really looking forward to it. And we're gonna all learn a lot about what's going on with Parks and Johnston County. But before we get to that, I'd like to ask you to like, follow and subscribe to this podcast wherever you're seeing, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn Instagram, or any of the other best of Johnston County Social Media channels.

The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday and has now for almost two years. So please go back and listen to previous episodes which includes most of the Johnston County Commissioners, Congressman Brad Knott and a whole cadre of small business owners. And we recently had Pernell Chandler of Call Pernell HVAC in Selma and activate Selma. So if Johnston County is your home and you love Johnston County, this is the podcast for you. Welcome, Adrian.

Adrian O'Neal : Good morning.

And it's still to this day, one of the episodes we're, we're in the nineties now of episodes that I get the most questions about because everybody wants to know about parks and because you were on here. They think I have the answer and I don't have the answers but it is what it is. I thought, well, I'm gonna have him come back because literally I am asked about you and that episode.

At least once a month.

Adrian O'Neal : Wow.

Adrian O'Neal : I'm Adrian O'Neal and I'm the Parks and Open Space director for Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

And I, I really, I, I do miss the people of state parks, but I enjoy working in Johnston County and, and there's a lot of benefits to working in Johnston County, one of the best places to work in county government, and, we we're real excited about what we've going got going on. I know that a lot of people think that things are not happening fast enough.

Adrian O'Neal : Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, but it is what it is. Well, I know these things take time, but good gracious.

Adrian O'Neal : Yeah. And, you know, when you're going from zero to trying to get to what we've got in the County around us, and we don't wanna be like the County around us. We wanna be Johnston County, but we want to have the same level of facilities that they have. And it does take a long time. It does take a lot of money, you know, quite frequently in the commissioner's meetings.

I tell 'em that you know, we don't build parks with farmers in the wintertime anymore, and they cost a lot of money. And they are very receptive to that, honestly. They have given us an increase in our budget this past year. Which we're gonna add a few things that, you know, I'm gonna say it again.

One of those being the regional park one of those,

Jonathan Breeden: that's the Cleveland Park.

Adrian O'Neal : The regional park at Cleveland?

Yes, sir. And and the reason we call it Regional Park, you know, we, we look at a lot of numbers. One of the data points we use is called placer and in that Placer data we can look and thankfully, GCAA has been there a long time, and that county property that GCAA uses, and we can look at that property and see how many visits there's been to GCAA.

Last year there was 27,000 visits to GCAA

Jonathan Breeden: at least.

Adrian O'Neal : Well that's, that's what's on there. Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I think it's more than that. And at least that many.

Adrian O'Neal : And we can, through heat maps, we can tell where those people came from. And when we look at the visitation to GCAA, yes, there's a lot that's in the Cleveland and the Clayton area, but if you spread out, you see visitation.

Jonathan Breeden: No, I don't doubt. And it's gonna be for, for, it's gonna be for the region. It's gonna, and when it's finally done, it's gonna be extremely nice with, it's gonna have ball fields, it's gonna have basketball court, it's gonna have a fishing pond.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: It's gonna have an amphitheater, it's gonna have walking trails. But I don't know that it will be done before my grandchildren are born. I'm being honest. Like I, I, I just, I, I, I've, I have told everybody since the very first meeting that I was on when Rick Hester and I called the lady that had the land to see what she'd be willing to do to see if we could do this.

I was there at the very beginning. I knew then, and my kids were little then. I knew then that even if we could get the land, which we ultimately did. That it would not be for my kids, it would be for my grandchildren, and I still believe that.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm.

The next 15 years. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't believe it.

Adrian O'Neal : It is a bit heavy lift, there's no doubt. And there's you know, we've worked with a lot of different, so sources. We've worked with federal grants, we've worked with state grants. We, we've got a state grant right now. The first phase with the last estimate, or the last bids came in and $4.4 million. And just to show you how much things cost, now that's parking area, roads, that's a pickleball court or double pickleball court. It's a basketball court, a picnic shelter, a fishing pond and auto parking to go with it.

So that's one of the, the increases that happened. We've gotta have clay trucked in so that they can put a liner in the pond. We also have run into a couple issues with DOT. Because they said, Hey, you're gonna have a big hit, they, they trust us, Jonathan. They said one day you're gonna have a big park here and you're gonna need two turning lanes.

You're gonna need a turn lane coming out, turn lane going in.

Jonathan Breeden: I think that's absolutely right.

Adrian O'Neal : And so they're making 'em put 'em in right off the bat. So there's things like that. And then, you know, we have, we added a picnic shelter becau, in the first phase because of the fact we wanted people to be able to have some shade out there.

So that pushes us back and you know, some of those things cost, but when you're going after money to build something, you have to sometimes wait on those.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I mean, so we talked about phase one when you were here in January of 24.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: We're recording this now in the middle of August of 25. This episode will probably run maybe October of 25 when it comes out.

I mean. We're still talking about phase one, and you said that was a 36 month process,

Adrian O'Neal : right?

Jonathan Breeden: In January of 24. So we're in the middle of that timeframe. But I think that a lot of us thought we would see the parking lot and some actual movement out there starting at the beginning of this summer, and that didn't happen. So now it goes back to all of us thinking this isn't gonna

And you know, in that case we didn't wanna waste. A hundred fifty, two hundred, three hundred, $400,000 on putting a parking lot in where we might not need a parking lot when all the design was finished. So that was one thing that set us back. And then I think, I think when I was here last time, we were actually in the middle of working with Stewart.

Which was the original designers.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

Adrian O'Neal : And they looked at everything to even, even the, the older part at that GCAA is using now. And we looked at the redesign on that. So, because we didn't wanna duplicate what was happening at GCAA over at the new section because they're gonna work together.

They're gonna work hand in hand.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: I understand that and I mean, and look, and I've, and I've, you've had several meetings at the fire department out here. I've attended those. I mean, you and your staff have done a great job trying to educate the public, but there's still not a dedicated funding source to build this all the way out.

Yes, we can have. I mean, I'm happy that we're gonna get a couple pickleball courts and a picnic shelter, and we're gonna be able to start getting some use out of it. But I mean, ultimately the price tag. It was somewhere between 30 and $50 million. dollars the time you developed that park. And then you completely redo the original GCA location you get a new gym, you reconfigure the fields that are there, you put in some additional parking.

I mean, there was even talk, maybe the community college would abandon that building.

And

I mean, I guess if your 36 months was right, this project will be done in the next 18 months. So by January of 27, we'll have the pickleball, we'll have the fishing court, we'll have the basketball court, and we'll have a parking lot.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm. And a picnic shelter. And, and right now we've got somewhere around $3.3 million.

In our account through grants and, and things such as that, I won't say in our accounts 'cause a lot of these grants, the way they work, the county pays 'em first and then we get reimbursed. But we've got that much in the pot. Right now we're kind of looking at how we're gonna get that last $900,000 to make it over the top.

So that's where we're at. You know, and it's well,

Jonathan Breeden: can you start, if you don't have the $900,000

Adrian O'Neal : no, because a contractor wants to note you got it all. So we've gotta at least have a, commitment of that much money.

Adrian O'Neal : and, and I will say the commissioner,

Jonathan Breeden: you're not a commissioner, but I'm just saying.

Adrian O'Neal : The commissioners have been very good to us this year. And we do have other projects. You know, believe it or not, we've, we've got like I said, five different projects that could come online.

Within the next 24 to 36 months one of those is a 313 acre park down at Four Oaks, which is part of part of a project that we're working on with Triangle Land Conservancy. And it will protect the Neuse River. It will protect Black Creek or a portion of Black Creek. And it is gonna provide some much needed office space for us to be able to get outta the land use center.

It's a old dairy farm and we're excited about getting it. It's a very unique spot. We've also got the trail behind Wilson Mills, new Wilson Mills High School that we'll be putting into place. You know, and a lot of these things that we're working on are, are through grant funds. You know, a lot of federal grants, a lot of highway grants, a lot of state grant funding.

We've got a boat ramp that we're working on near Clayton 42 and, and the Neuse River. And obviously we've got the, the regional park. So, there's, there are a lot of different projects going on. We try to keep those juggling all the time. And, and we've you know, right now there's a staff of two.

And that's what that position will do. And as well as some of the other projects. And then we've got two what I call general utility workers that are part-time and they're gonna help us keep up the new park at at the, it's at the end of Devil's Racetrack, pretty much. Keep up that and the regional park, when we get it online, they'll go over there and do daily maintenance, daily sweeps on it, make sure everything's okay, and nothing's been broken, and stuff like that.

So some of those things are coming along, maybe not as fast as we want 'em to all the time, but they are coming along.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and I know, I mean, you can't say this, you're County employee, but, and, and we've asked the commissioners that have been through here on this podcast since you've been on, and you know and, and I think they're committed to it. You know what I mean? But I don't know, and you're not gonna be able to answer this, but I don't know that the Cleveland Park. At its full capacity.

We collect from the entire county and we're gonna give this to Parks and Rec and we're gonna build parks with it. And we're gonna do not rec, you don't do programs, but anyway, parks and open spaces. And this will allow us to build these parks where we're not relying on grants and outside money to do it.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. It's been a very long time, and I've not heard any of them. Say that that's what they intend to do anytime soon because they've been building schools, but they're starting to get caught up on schools. So who knows? But they also now have to do a $300 million complex for the county government offices, DSS county tax office and stuff like that out there by the new jail outside of Smithfield.

Like, they said, okay, we're gonna do this. And sort of, and it's sort of evolving, maybe not evolving as fast as I would like to see. Right. But at least it's evolving and you're still here. But, but anyway.

Jonathan Breeden: So let's talk a little bit about, well, I mean, what would be the funding for the Four Oaks? I mean, that's 300 acres, that's a lot bigger than the, than the regional market in Cleveland, which is 80 acres.

Adrian O'Neal : Well, we, that funding came through state grants, federal grants, and that was attributed to TLC. TLC is one of the best things we do. The ca the county commissioners do put some money in TLC every year.

Jonathan Breeden: What is TLC?

Adrian O'Neal : Triangle Land Conservancy and they work in wake County. They work in Johnston County and a couple other counties, but Johnston's the only one we're really worried about.

But they're doing great things in Johnston County to maintain open space. They do a lot to protect our rivers and streams throughout the county. Make sure they're clean and, and. Don't get polluted. And a lot of times what they're doing is buying buffer property or getting easements, doing natural resource easements along the buffer properties.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that, that's great.

Adrian O'Neal : Great.

Jonathan Breeden: That's great. That's, yeah, I, I know about them and all the good work they're doing. I wanna make sure we made that clear to the listeners that maybe not. I've heard of them. So, another question I get, we talked about it when you were here in January 24 The Mountains to the Sea Trail.

Once again, that is a generational type project that will be going on for a very long time. What is the status of it in Johnston County now? What progress is being made towards mainly getting it connected between Clayton and Smithfield? I got a lot of questions about that. So what's going on with that?

Adrian O'Neal : Well, there's some semantics there too. You know, we always look at the way things are done, but officially The Mountains to the Sea Trail is a complete path that you can take from one interstate to the other.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, I didn't know that.

Adrian O'Neal : But a lot of it is roadside.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, okay.

So along that section, we're really building greenway, not just trail, okay. The mountains of sea trail. It was generally. Conceived as a footpath. It was not conceived as a greenway that would be 10 feet wide and paved and like what you see, around much of Clayton. But in that section we have to use those East Coast Greenway standards because they're more stringent and it costs us more.

Jonathan Breeden: Geez.

Adrian O'Neal : Which is, is I, I, I beat the engineers up all the time about it. You can ask the guys from McAdams. You can ask the guys from Stewart. You can ask anyones that I've talked to because I I do talk to 'em, you know, a regular country road. Is about $3 million for a mile of Country Road, and that's a two lane, 12 foot wide lanes like I said, about $3 million a mile.

And I tell 'em I only need half of that, so my green should only cost $1.5 million very much. Right, right. So, but they, they, they kinda laugh and then turn away and. Probably talk dirty about me behind my back. But anyway, we, if if we don't push 'em to bring the cost down, then I wouldn't be doing my job.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So have we added any Greenway in the last 18 months?

Adrian O'Neal : No, we have not.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adrian O'Neal : But the first piece that we add will be that behind Wilson Middle School.

Adrian O'Neal : Right now we have just hired a designer for it. I know that sounds crazy, that you have to hire a designer to, to build a path, but everything that we do in or near any wetlands has a lot of permitting that it has to go through, and that is in and near wetlands along the river.

So we'll have to make sure that we do it correctly. And the other thing is we want it built in a resilient manner so we're not having to rebuild it every two to three years when we have a hurricane or flood.

Jonathan Breeden: So realistically. When would Clayton and Smithfield be connected by a greenway or that's just Well, there's no way to know.

Adrian O'Neal : There's no way to know because there's a lot of landowners between Smithfield and Clayton and we have to. We have to have willing landowners for a state trail, you cannot use imminent domain.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that was my next question. You can't just condemn it.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adrian O'Neal : So, and, and that's the way we want it because we want cooperative neighbors and we don't want a stigma put on a piece of trail that people are gonna use.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. I got you. And then the funding that you're getting for the Mountain Sea Trail, I mean this, this two miles, I guess, behind Wilson, the new Wilson Mills High School is gonna cost. $4 million. Where's that funding coming from?

Adrian O'Neal : That was creative funding that actually has come through carbon reduction grant.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adrian O'Neal : And you know, there's, there's a certain amount of money that the federal government puts forward and I don't know if they'll ever do it again, but they put forth this money to not take cars off the road, but to give alternatives to using a car to get from point A to point B.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adrian O'Neal : And we were able to capitalize on that and get that grant for that piece of trail.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that's fascinating. That's fascinating.

Adrian O'Neal : Yeah.

But what else can the citizens in Johnston County be looking forward to over the next 12 to 18 months from your department?

Adrian O'Neal : Well, one of the big things that I think is come about since the last time we talked is we have a friends group in Johnston County, friends of parks and arts.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Adrian O'Neal : In Johnston County. And we had a donor that donated $50,000 over the course of two years for projects. And you know, that's one of the things a friend's group or a group support group like that. They can do a lot of things with just manpower, but when you start getting a little money involved, it helps you out tremendously.

Because if you've got a grandparent or even a young person that has something going on with their heart and they don't know whether they're gonna be able to get help, if they go to a place like that, it's very scary for 'em.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, I know. And, and you know, we had that debate when I was on the board of GCAA about buying one, having it, what liabilities does it create by having it, not having anybody trained on how to use it, and then who's gonna get trained on how to use it. There's always gonna be somebody present that knows how to use it. And we're talking about adsd, you're talking about the life things better wet, like the, the guns that they sort of shock you back with, you know, the sort of old school, you know,

Adrian O'Neal : automated electronic defi.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, right, right. They put. Things on you if you have a heart attack and they go chip on, you know, something like that. But anyway. Well, I mean, I, I think that's great and that friends group has done several trash pickup events.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm.

I know Denton Lee's been involved with that.

Adrian O'Neal : Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm glad they exist and hopefully their numbers will continue to grow.

Adrian O'Neal : Oh, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And because I mean, I think they're, they're doing a, they're doing a lot of the right things. They're also adv, they're also advocates to the commissioners as you are.

And I am, you know, for additional funding and additional spaces and stuff like that. So, anyway, I know you live in Wayne County, but last question we always ask people. On this podcast, what do you love most about Johnston County?

Adrian O'Neal : It's still gotta be the people that are here. Even though I live in Wayne County, I grew up in Harnett County, which is right next door. And my father grew up in Johnston County and he, it's great to bring him through the county 'cause he can tell me what he remembers when he was young.

Jonathan Breeden: Well that's, that's greats. No, it's been great. And we were very fortunate and everybody's, look, I mean everybody from Butch Lawter to Rick Hester, county manager, commissioner chairman, very fortunate you took this job and have stayed with this job.

I mean, the thought that we didn't have a department and we got this. Director to retire and come start one for us was a big get for us. And, and I am very appreciative of what you've done and that you're sticking with us and, and working through this. I mean, it's like baby steps, right? Like we didn't have this, like, it's, it's baby steps for the, for the citizens, for the commissioners, for the county manager.

And it's going well. Of course, we all want it to go faster. The commissioners, once again, as I said earlier, have. Lots and lots of things on their plate from schools to, they just gotta pay for this new jail. They, they need a complex, it's gonna cost $300 million. Like there's a lot, but I do think that the parks will be coming as we go.

As we mentioned earlier, please like, follow, subscribe this podcast wherever you're seeing it, whether on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn. Instagram or any of the other social media channels, The Best of Johnston County Podcast also give us a five star review down below. It'll help us expand our reach to reach more of Johnston County citizens, so they will know about this podcast and why I and Adrian O'Neal love Johnston County so much.

Until next time, I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden.

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