Asheville School Board: Jones Park renamed to Candace Pickens Park; honors murder victim

Sarah Honosky, Asheville Citizen Times
·4 min read

ASHEVILLE - Once called Jones Park, now an empty lot after it was demolished a year ago, the soon-to-be rebuilt North Asheville playground and park will be named in honor of Candace Pickens, the 22-year-old woman who was murdered there in May 2016.

A unanimous vote from the Asheville City Board of Education Oct. 10 approved the name change to Candace Pickens Park, a conversation that is part of a larger journey, one that centers the rebuild of the popular spot after it was torn down by ACS in September 2021.

Keesha Martinez, mother to Pickens, attended the Oct. 10 meeting. She advocated for the park to be named in her daughter's honor at the Sept. 27 City Council meeting, and said it was a place she used to take her children when they were young and, in turn, where Candace took her own son.

“She really loved that park. It’s one of our favorite parks that we went to," Martinez told the Citizen Times Oct. 10. "I think if Candace was here, she would be very touched. And I know she’s smiling down.”

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Pickens was killed in 2016 on her then 3-year-old's son birthday. She had taken him to the park to celebrate, Martinez said. Her son, Zachaeus, was also shot, losing his left eye and surviving.

Nathaniel Dixon was sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

The school board had little discussion before the vote, but acknowledged Martinez in the crowd and her stance in favor of the renaming.

Martinez said she still visits the park frequently to remember her daughter. She lays flowers there or brings balloons. When she visited the space to find it torn down, it took her by surprise.

"It was sad," she said of the park's absence, and she was glad to hear it would be rebuilt and, in turn, "honored" that the park would be renamed in Pickens' memory. At the meeting, she thanked the school board, City Council and council member Antanette Mosley, who supported the renaming, for "listening to my plea."

"I knew it was the place where she was at last, and even after her death, I would still go," Martinez said. "It still brings back a sense of peace because that’s what I feel when I go there. I feel her there.”

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Though the park shares a parcel with Ira B. Jones Elementary School on property owned by ACS, it was treated as more of a community park, set several hundred feet away from the school building, down the hill and surrounded by a copse of trees. It was built in 1999 by community volunteers and maintained by the city for its first five years.

After ACS tore down the playground in 2021, citing an "unsatisfactory safety inspection," they said they would rebuild when funds were available. They later backed out of that promise, noting that the school board has no obligation to operate a playground that serves largely as a public park and discussing concerns of liability and funding at an April 4 meeting.

The Jones Park playground in North Asheville prior to its August 2021 demolition.
The Jones Park playground in North Asheville prior to its August 2021 demolition.

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After a neighbor of the park, David Rodgers, raised $311,000 for the park's rebuild October 2021, he found himself embroiled in a game of "political football," with the city, Buncombe County and Asheville City Schools, each deliberating their role in the playground's future.

But on Sept. 19, the school board approved their piece of an interlocal agreement. Per the agreement, ACS owns the land and holds the private donor funds to pay for construction, Buncombe County oversees bidding and construction and the city of Asheville will maintain the playground equipment.

Interim Superintendent Jim Causby said it was an "excellent" agreement, one that brought together three- governmental partners, and "gets something done that the community wanted. "

Of the renaming, he said with Martinez's advocacy and council support, the school board felt "it was the right thing to do."

The empty lot where the Jones Park playground once stood, June 8, 2022.
The empty lot where the Jones Park playground once stood, June 8, 2022.

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Asheville City Council authorized City Manager Debra Campbell to enter into the interlocal agreement Sept. 27, with an addendum made by Mosley that the park be renamed after Pickens.

Mosley was in attendance at the Oct. 10 school board meeting.

“As a Black woman, part of the demographic most likely to be affected by domestic violence and homicide from an intimate partner, I am especially gratified by the school board’s decision to rename the park after Candace Pickens," Mosley said.

Typically, renaming ACS facilities follows policy 9300, involving staff, students and parent participation, but ACS spokesperson Dillon Huffman said the board attorney has advised the school board that since this is a park and not a building they do not have to follow the policy, and a simple vote would be sufficient.

Huffman said the park will take its new name immediately after the vote.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: North Asheville's Jones Park renamed to honor Candace Pickens