Dallas County has been playing the waiting game since submitting a proposal to the state of Alabama to take over operating Paul Grist State Park.

When the proposal was submitted, Dallas County Probate Judge and Commission Chairman Kim Ballard said it might be a month before the state makes a decision.

“If they gave me a green light today, I could open the park up tomorrow,” Ballard said Tuesday.

“I’m optimistic. There is no reason to be pessimistic at this point. If they say no, I’ll come up with a plan B all the way to Z if it takes it.”

While the decision won’t be made today, Greg Lein, director of Alabama State Parks, said the state could have a decision in the next couple of weeks.

“I’m just appreciative of the local government entities that have been able to step up and try to work with us and get these properties reopened so that the public does have access to the public lands in some sort of form or fashion,” Lein said.

“I know that that’s a challenge for them just as we’ve been challenged to keep them open all these years.”

Lein said it is a priority to get the parks that were closed reopened to the public.

Since the park closed Oct. 15, much of the state’s equipment has been removed, including lawnmowers, boats and other equipment used to maintain the park.

“The standard approach for all of these closures is that with staff being released from employment and in some cases not being certain what our security plans are, we have intended all along to go ahead and remove any equipment that is on our inventory that we can remove and use elsewhere,” Lein said.

The state had planned to remove the playground equipment at Paul Grist, but it decided not to after the county requested it to be left alone.

“There are some things that are practical and are easy to move and they can be used tomorrow in another location and there are other things that are different,” Lein said. “There are limits relative to our state inventory where there are legal constraints to what we leave or don’t leave.”

Ballard said the county will continue fighting to have the park reopened.

“It may be a fight, but I’m going to go down fighting,” Ballard said just a few days before the park closed.