Lemons become lemonade? How about gravel pit becomes fishing Mecca?
BENTON — “Sunset Lake was an abandoned gravel pit that has been turned into an outdoor recreation opportunity,” Curtis Mccormack, Parks and Recreation director for Benton, said of the lake that is enrolled in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Family and Community Fishing Program.
If anyone knows the story of Benton’s Sunset Lake, it is Mccormack. He has served the city as an employee for 37 years. Before he moved into the top Parks and Recreation spot in 1992, he was the city’s police chief.
“We received a 75 to 25 percent matching grant from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department to construct the one-mile walking trail around the lake. We have contracted with an aquatic-vegetation service to control the lake, as well as a retired fisheries director from Game and Fish to manage our fish population,” Mccormack said.
While the lake, at the corner of Fairfield Road and Henry Street, attracts plenty of folks who are there to take advantage of the fishing, the setting offers so much more to experience.
“There has never been a time when [I was] going to the lake that I didn’t see someone either walking, jogging, fishing or just having a good time,” Mccormack said, noting that the annual youth fishing derby — held in conjunction with the Benton Fraternal Order of Police — is slated for June 12 this year.
“This year, we will for the first time include the Saline County Senior Adult Center in this event. Our goal is for senior citizens to share their fishing skills with the youths who will come from the Benton Boys and Girls Clubs.”
While the AGFC stocks fish in the lake on a regular basis, the city has taken the initiative to supplement those stockings with catfish and rainbow trout added to the lake every June and December, respectively, out of the Parks and Recreation budget.
That’s just the beginning of the local involvement with this body of water, though.
“The picnic tables with the Boy Scout emblems were built by a young man who was doing a community project to obtain his Eagle Scout award,” Mccormack said, then shifted from Eagle Scouts to bald eagles by explaining that a pair of the birds had been fishing the lake for at least the past four years.
Now, the Parks and Recreation Department for Benton is discussing the possibility of adding a dog park between the lake and the National Guard Armory just north of Sunset.
Also, an Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism grant is allowing the construction of a large picnic pavilion and added security lighting.
For more information on Sunset Lake or other Benton Parks and Recreation Department activities, call the department at (501) 776-5970.
Staff writer James K. Joslin can be reached at (501) 399-3693 or jjoslin@arkansasonline.com.