The first plan was too small. Louie Greene had come to Elizabethton Parks and Recreation with money for a playground, and director David Nanney showed him what that amount would buy. Nanney told the Elizabethton Star that Greene "looked at us and he said, 'Boys, I don't think this is big enough.'" Greene left, came back, and brought more money.

The result is Sandra Renee Greene Park, a fenced playground on 1.3 acres near Race and Pine streets, just off the Linear Trail. The ribbon was cut on September 10. It is free and open to the public, and it is named for Greene's daughter.

Look at Elizabethton's parks this year and a pattern shows up. Neighbors and local organizations paid for the two new places to play that opened in 2026. The bigger rebuild of a Helene-damaged park is running on a separate federal reimbursement timeline. And the newest playground sits on the trail on purpose.

What One Gift Paid For

According to the Johnson City Press, Greene's donation was exactly $161,394.18. It paid for playground equipment from GameTime PlayCore of Charlotte. The Star put the finished park's cost at about $162,000, so his gift covered nearly all of it. Nanney and assistant director Garrett Johnson spent eight months working with Greene on the project, and Greene stopped by the department as often as several times a week to check on it.

What's on the ground:

• A fenced playground where children can climb, slide and explore
• Equipment for different age groups, all of it modern
• A merry-go-round, which Nanney called the "old school" piece of the design
• A large stone with Sandra's name on it, which Greene bought for the park himself

"It's kind of an old school meets new school kind of thing. It's all modern equipment, but with the merry-go-round. And things are just a lot safer than the old stuff used to be." David Nanney, Elizabethton Parks and Recreation, to the Elizabethton Star

The park is city property now, and the City of Elizabethton will maintain it.

Why the Park Sits on the Trail

The location was planned. The Johnson City Press reported in February that the Race Street area had little room for recreation, and that this was the gap the parks department wanted to fill. Nanney said kids on foot and on bikes would be able to get to the park quickly by the Linear Bike Trail. The Star reported that Greene and the parks staff picked a piece of land along the Linear Trail and made it into the park after several meetings.

That ties a 1.3-acre playground to something much longer. The city describes the Linear Trail as about six miles long. It starts at Eastside Elementary School, follows the Doe River through town, and then follows the Watauga River downstream to Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area. The city's park inventory counts Edwards Island among ten parks along the path. Others on the route include Cat Island Park, Covered Bridge Park, David McQueen Riverside Park and Mill Race Park.

So a family heading to the new playground is already on the same path that runs past Covered Bridge Park, where the farmers market used to be before it moved to Kiwanis Park. Sandra Renee Greene Park adds one more stop to that string, and it's in the part of town that had the least room to play.

Greene Had Been Giving for Years

The playground wasn't Greene's first gift to Carter County. In the same Johnson City Press article, the paper listed what he had already given:

1. His parents' Gap Creek farm, the place he grew up: more than 50 acres, three houses, a couple of barns and other outbuildings. He gave it to the school board on the understanding that it would become an agricultural center where future generations can learn to farm. His parents, Frank Hartsell Greene and Virginia Dare Greene, had each worked an eight-hour shift at North American Rayon Corporation and then another eight hours on that farm.
2. A $250,000 endowment to start a scholarship program at his old school, Happy Valley High School.
3. $10,000 to the Elizabethton Housing and Development Agency to buy bicycles for the children who live there.
4. $20,000 to the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs hospital for special needs his fellow veterans might have.

The bicycles and the playground both went to children in town, and the playground sits on a trail built for walking and biking.

At the September ceremony honoring the late Louie Greene, his longtime friends Paul Bellamy and Dale Fair spoke. Bellamy had known him more than 40 years and told the Star, "When you had Louie Greene as a friend, you had a confidant and a friend."

A Second Gift Opened in August

Greene's park wasn't the only new park that local money paid for. Betsy's Bark Park opened in August in the Joe LaPorte Recreation Area, next to the pickleball courts. WCYB reported fenced play areas, shade, dog-waste bags, and a three-in-one water fountain that serves both people and pets. Like the playground, it is free.

The backers were the Lions Club, the Boyd Foundation and Carter County government. One park came from a single person and the other from a civic club, a foundation and the county, but both projects went from idea to open gate in 2026.

Cat Island Is on a Separate Track

Cat Island Park shows how the other kind of park project moves. The Johnson City Press describes it as sitting on the banks of the Doe River just upstream from the Covered Bridge. After Hurricane Helene, the debris was cleared over the following year, and then reconstruction waited behind higher priorities. Those included getting the Elk Avenue Bridge back in service and resurfacing city streets worn down by flooding and detour traffic.

At the July city council meeting, Nanney said FEMA funding was expected to become available in September. He said the parks staff had already ordered the two biggest pieces of the rebuild, both of which qualify for reimbursement:

Nanney told the council the playground "will provide a safe, inclusive and engaging recreational space for children of all abilities," according to the Johnson City Press.

At that same July meeting, the council approved an amended grant contract with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. It starts reimbursement for 10 recovery projects worth $1,211,037 combined. Two of them were smaller repairs along the Linear Trail. Edwards Island Park was reimbursed $42,655 for new wooden benches, a wooden split-rail fence and a walking bridge. David McQueen Riverside Park was reimbursed $13,248 for items that included two metal picnic tables, six metal park benches and three trash can holders.

Compare those numbers to Greene's gift. His $161,394.18 is a little over one-eighth of the entire $1.21 million covering ten recovery projects, and nearly four times the Edwards Island repair bill. His money went into a brand-new park, while the federal reimbursement process is putting existing ones back together. Elizabethton's park system is moving on both tracks at once, and they sit on the same six miles of trail.

Still in the Works on the Trail

One more project would stretch the path's reach. In May 2025, City Council approved a $520,000 contract for a ten-foot-wide path on Hattie Avenue. It would run from the Linear Path at South Riverside Drive to the Tweetsie Trail at Cedar Avenue, with $416,000 in federal money and $104,000 in local money, the Elizabethton Star reported. In the regional transportation program adopted in December 2025, the project was listed as being in the design phase. When it's built, the trail that gets kids from Race Street to the new playground will also link to the Tweetsie, which runs through the scenery in our fall weekend guide to Elizabethton.

For now, the newest stop on the Linear Trail is a fenced playground near Race and Pine streets with a merry-go-round and a stone bearing Sandra Renee Greene's name.

Here at Kim Leonard, we love seeing neighbors build the places where Elizabethton kids play, and we'd be glad to tell you more about the parks along the Linear Trail and the streets around them. Visit our Elizabethton neighborhood page for more local stories. If you live near the trail and want to know what your home is worth, get your instant home valuation here.