Pond project is almost complete
Dredging is finished; banks in process of being reinforced
The Spring Lake Park pond dredging project is near completion, but recent frigid weather has delayed progress.
Beginning in July 2017, contractor Tatum Excavating Co. dredged the pond to a depth of 10 feet. That phase of the project is finished, and spring water is refilling the pond as workers continue to reinforce its banks with stone-filled wire baskets topped with flagstone paving.
A recent influx of Arctic air dropped nighttime temperatures into the teens, freezing the ground around the pond and making continued work impossible until a thaw. Texasside Parks and Recreation Director Robby Robertson said work should resume soon and be done by early spring at the latest.
The city will work with state wildlife officials to restock the pond with fish in the spring, as well, Robertson said.
Also this year, work is expected to begin on improvements to the walking trail around the pond, funded by a grant awarded more than 18 months ago.
In 2016, Texas Parks and Wildlife awarded the city a $130,000-plus grant to develop a new “Walk Through History”
trail featuring signage that notes historical information. But required environmental and archaeological reviews of the project have delayed its getting started.
TPW recently told Robertson it is still processing grants it awarded in 2015, and the Spring Lake Park grant is at the top of the agency’s 2016 list.
“We’re at the mercy of Texas Parks and Wildlife on that,” Robertson said.
When the project is completed, visitors will be able to read about conquistador Hernando de Soto drinking from the location’s springs in 1541, Anthony L. Ghio’s initial development of the park grounds in 1887 and the zoo that opened there in 1960, among other interesting historical facts.
The grant money will be used to renovate the 2,000-foot section of the walking trail that wraps around the pond. Improvements will include repairing tree root damage, expanding the trail by 700 feet and adding the history component. Parks and Recreation will construct the project itself as much as possible but will contract for materials like asphalt.
The project will complete renovation of the Spring Lake Park walking trail, first built using mostly gravel in the 1960s. Most of the trail was improved with a project completed in 2009, when it was named the Phillip McDougal Trail.
After a year filled with major projects—such as dredging the pond, replacing all parks’ playground equipment and all ball fields’ lighting, and re-roofing several city buildings— Robertson is looking forward to a more normal workload in 2018.
“Really, we’re going to be working on being a parks department again,” he said.