Tonkawa Falls Park Crawford Texas
Picturesque Tonkawa Falls Park in store for enhancements, expansion
Sunday, February 04, 2007
By David Doerr
Tribune-Herald staff writer
CRAWFORD — Tonkawa Falls Park will soon get a needed face-lift and some new amenities as local officials work to make $600,000 worth of enhancements in the coming years.
The city park overhaul will be funded in part by a $300,000 grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. With the addition of about 32 acres, the park will more than double in size and include upgrades to existing infrastructure as well as new features for outdoor recreation.
The park’s current amenities include RV campsites, picnic tables and the picturesque Tonkawa Falls, which feeds a popular limestone-lined swimming hole on the Tonk Creek.
The “clubhouse,” which overlooks the swimming hole, is likely to be one of the first projects the city takes on, Crawford Mayor David Posten said.
The clubhouse was built in the 1930s by workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a Depression-era public works program.
Interested parties
“We have had people wanting to rent it, but it is in bad repair,” Posten said of the clubhouse. “We’re expecting that people will want to come down there and have maybe a family reunion or graduation parties.”
The city will be assisted by the county and several civic groups in the renovation and expansion project, Posten said. Together the various local entities will contribute $300,000 worth of materials, labor and equipment to the project to match the state’s end of the deal.
Other additions to the park will include a nature trail, a playground and various sports facilities.
Many of the new amenities will be located on the 32 acres of adjacent property located northeast of the Tonk Creek that the city had already acquired.
They will be welcome improvements, said Ray Meadows, the McLennan County commissioner whose precinct includes Crawford. The county will contribute about $45,000 to the project in labor and equipment to clear trees on the new park land.
“We’re having such growth there that they need parks just to take a walk,” he said. “It will just be good for the young ones and give everyone something to identify with.”
The park is one of this town’s biggest draws, even when President Bush — Crawford’s most famous resident — isn’t staying at his nearby, 1,600-acre ranch. Conventional campers at the park have sometimes found themselves alongside peace activists during Bush’s visits to his ranch.
Crawford, which will have three years to complete the project, was one of a relative few that received the state funds this year, said Tim Hogsett, grants director for the state parks agency.
Only 13 of the 32 communities that applied for outdoor recreation grants received them.
The agency gave away a total of $5.5 million in grants this year, which is down from about $20 million in 2002, Hogsett said.
In 2003, Texas lawmakers raided accounts dedicated to state and local parks funding by shifting the state’s sales tax on sporting goods.
This year, however, legislators are pledging to restore the parks department’s original funding sources.
If that happens, the number of similar grants should increase beyond 2002 levels, Hogsett said.
Posten said he’s glad the city was lucky enough to land the state assistance this year. The park overhaul will benefit residents by providing them with recreational opportunities and attracting visitors who may spend money in the city when they go to the park, he said.
“We’re thinking it will just be a better draw for people with everything being updated and upgraded,” Posten said. “It will give us an opportunity to better utilize the assets that we have.”
ddoerr@wacotrib.com
757-5755
source: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/02/04/02042007waccrawfordpark.html
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