Plans for recreation uses at Rueter-Hess unveiled
parker» Eventually, Rueter-Hess Reservoir could welcome recreational activities ranging from hiking, camping and fishing to archery, open water swimming and even personal boat use.
Taking into account barriers such as staffing, invasive mollusks and — biggest of all — funding, some of those uses could arrive at the Parker-area reservoir later than others.
The Parker Water and Sanitation District this week unveiled a final draft of its recreation plans for the Douglas County drinking water reservoir.
The plan calls for a 17mile trails network, including a 10-mile loop around the reservoir. There is an outline for a main entrance and fee area on the east side of the property offering nonmotorized boat rentals and a 400-spot parking lot. To the north, near the water purification facility, plans include a sledding hill and incline challenge stairs, and even a possible archery range. Of course, everything is contingent on funding.
“I think it will be more fees at the gate and annual passes” at the outset, district manager Rod Redd said, adding the that budgeting and financing discussions are likely to happen this fall.
Redd said trails probably will be an early focus because they don’t require as many staff members to monitor them and enforce safety rules as much as uses like swimming. He does expect there to be open water swimming on select dates and times but not a dedicated swim beach, in part because the water levels will rise and fall dramatically at the reservoir. He said triathlons and other events might take place at the reservoir as soon as 2017 and could help generate money to put toward other projects.
Redd expects RueterHess eventually will allow people to bring their own canoes and other nonmotorized vessels, but only after a mechanism to safeguard the water from invasive pests like zebra mussels, carried between bodies of water on improperly cleaned boats, can be established.
“The sooner we’ll solve the zebra mussel issue, the sooner we’ll have that,” he said.
The district will work with its recreation authority, including representatives from Parker, Castle Rock, Douglas County, Lone Tree and Castle Pines, on budgeting, Redd said.
Scott Pearson was among the dozens of area residents who viewed the plans at a recent open house. The Parker resident is an avid road cyclist and is looking forward to riding around the reservoir, even if it’s not on a concrete path.
“I was kind of hoping they would build a pathway around it, but you can always bring the cyclocross bike out and ride” the soft surface trails, he said.
Pearson, like several people at the open house, said that for him, the most important thing is that RueterHess was built and is filling with water from renewable sources to help protect the area’s future.