The Kanawha County Parks Commission announced that twice as many people have visited the Coonskin light display in 2015 as did last year.
"It was bumper to bumper all the way to the end of the park and back," board President Maj. Gen. Allen Tackett said Thursday, during the commission's meeting.
The park handed out more than 100 candy canes to kids on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the line to ride Hoppy's Little Express train consistently was long.
The traffic has also helped out the Kanawha County Railroad Association, which is hosting its Christmas Open House through Sunday. The members of the association were concerned that they wouldn't receive as many visitors because of the new entrance to Coonskin Park. The updated traffic configuration through the park has left the railroad association isolated at the very end of the newly paved road.
"It's going very well," said association member Richard Boyd, who added that the Railroad Association has already exceeded last year in donations.
The "Lights of Coonskin" will remain on in the park until January.
Between $7.5 million and $8 million was spent on Coonskin park in 2015, including the construction of the new bridge, said Kanawha County Parks' Executive Director Jeff Hutchinson.
"We've done a lot at Coonskin, but we've done a lot everywhere else as well," he said.
Some of those projects include sodding Big Bend golf course, getting the course a new mower, fixing a leak in the pool at East Bank and putting in new tile inside of the pool house at East Bank.
In the upcoming year, the commission still plans on some big projects.
Right now, the commission needs $300,000 to fix Schoenbaum Field in Coonskin Park. Tackett said he is 99 percent certain that he'll be able to come up with the money to meet the commission's time line.
The commission already has the money on hand to repair the tennis courts in Coonskin.
Residents have complained about the appearance of the maintenance facility that people see right when they cross the bridge to the park, but Tackett said that plans are in place to fix that.
The commission will put a fence around the maintenance area and put up new buildings, he said.
"It will be repaired come spring," Tackett said. "So it will do a whole lot to help with the look."
November was a good month for golf because of the warm weather. The commission also appointed Travis Counts to be the new superintendent of Big Bend Golf Course.
"When you get a new superintendent they always come in with new ideas and hit the ground running," said Dave Pope, who heads the Golf Committee for the commission.
The commission wrapped up its last meeting of the year with a lunch for the employees of the park system and the Kanawha County Commissioners.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow
@drdesrochers on Twitter.