AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -Just a few months ago, North Augusta’s Greeneway looked nothing like what it does now.

Hurricane Helene did a number on the popular trail, which closed it down for months.

Now the entire thing is back open ahead of schedule and just in time for the holidays.

“I don’t know if we thought it’d be done by Christmas, but it is and I think it’s a great early Christmas present for the citizens of North Augusta and the CSRA,” said Briton Williams, North Augusta mayor.

Williams was expecting the Greeneway to open back up in January, but he says thanks to R&R Tree Service, the job is complete.

“It’s wide open from one end to the next,” said Williams. “I’ve ridden it on the golf cart and it is accessible now for everybody.”

R&R Tree Service has been working on cleaning up the Greeneway since Hurricane Helene hit, which was about three months ago.

Now that it’s all cleaned up, Williams says their next focus is the parks, and they’re hoping to have those done sometime in January.

“We had a lot of damage with our parks, but Creighton Park is a great park, and they’ve cleared that out,” said Williams. “The focus moving forward will be for that company R&R Tree Service to work on the city parks.”

Williams says they own about 25% of the roads inside North Augusta city limits.

“We’re probably at 92% first pass of city-owned roads,” he said.

Williams says there are two separate companies working on the roads and cleaning up the parks because that’s what they can control.

“I think it’s a perfect example,” said Williams. “The Greeneway is telling you when we control something, we can be very efficient.”

And as for what they can’t control, Williams says that a different story.

“Which is unfortunately about 70% of the roads in North Augusta, we just still can’t dictate what to do and we just continue to express, you know, areas of, ‘Hey, this where the focus is.’”

But Williams says having the Greeneway back is like getting back to some form of normalcy.

“Psychologically and physically for citizens, and I can get on that Greeneway because that’s very therapeutic for us, and I think that is the number one thing that is showing we’re getting some normalcy back in our lives.”

Williams says there’s a lot more to be done, but they won’t stop until it’s all complete so he asks that everyone stay patient and positive.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The ringing bells are coming to an end.

The Salvation Army of Augusta is making the last push on Christmas Eve to meet their fundraising goal and change your perspective of what homelessness looks like here at home.

They’re even playing instruments to help make a difference in the community.

“We try to make it so that they can also enjoy this time of the year, just like anyone,” said Janelys Villalta, Salvation Army marketing and public relations manager.

They have been raising money all year long, but especially around the holiday season.

“It’s Christmas and we are very conscious of that with the clients that we do have staying at the shelter,” said Villalta. “We want them to feel like anyone else would want to feel this holiday season. We want them to be surrounded by love and joy.”

Spreading happiness in any way they can.

“What we’ve seen in the last two or three years is a shift,” said Jonathan Raymer, Salvation Army major and area commander. “So often when we think of homelessness, we think of the homeless man who’s out. But half of the people staying at our Center of Hope are women and children and so we’ve seen an increase in women and children needing housing, and experiencing homelessness.”

Raymer says ⅔ of them have a job, but just not enough to sustain a place to live so anything you would be willing to give could even be life-changing.

“If you donate $20, that actually will shelter a family of four for four nights,” said Raymer.

Passing along hope and love to everyone this holiday season.

“All of that stays here local, all of that goes to support what we’re doing at our Center of Hope where in the past two years, we’ve been able to move 300 people from homelessness to being housed,” said Raymer. “This year, we’ve been able to help 600 people stay in their homes so it goes to a very good cause and helping those in need.”

You can still donate online at their website here.

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