For the third time in four weeks, the College Station city council addresses the purchase of new equipment at Thomas Park.
On June 27th, the council approved spending $280,000 dollars.
Neighborhood opponents who were not at that meeting showed up July 11. That led the council to decide holding another discussion.
Then at the council’s meeting on July 25, Mayor Karl Mooney announced after a closed door executive session on the advice of their lawyer they are proceeding with the equipment purchase.
The mayor’s announcement was followed by an e-mail to WTAW News and the council from Patsy Johnson of the College Hills Woodlands neighborhood group.
She wants to protect Thomas Park as a community park instead of making it…in her words…”a mere neighborhood park”.
Johnson repeated her call to create a special committee to redevelop the city’s first park and replace the pool that was closed last year.
Here is Patsy Johnson’s e-mail:
I was disappointed to learn that the funds for the “improvements” to Thomas Park play equipment had been unfrozen. I believe that a solution could have been found even though a contract had already been signed.
I ask that each of you to pull up Thomas Park on Google Maps. Notice that the South end of the park is just two blocks from city hall, the North end is a only three. A very short walk in either case. We are about to poor $38,000,000.00 into a new city hall, but somehow there is a ton of resistance to giving any special consideration to Thomas Park. In fact, there are people who want to consider Thomas Park as a mere neighborhood park instead of the community park it has been since the city’s inception.
Thomas Park was our city’s first park. It was acquired the same year as the city was incorporated, which is remarkable given the city wasn’t incorporated October 19th of that year. It was largely because of Mable Clare Thomas’ influence that Thomas Park was donated to the city at that time.
Thomas Park was eventually named for this inspiring woman. Mable Clare’s life’s work was in reading education. She received many honors including having a state stamp issued in her honor by the Governor of her home state of Alabama while she was still a teenager because of her work in reading education for both white and black children. She would be considered remarkable during our time, but in her time she was revolutionary! For decades, she was a radio personality here in the Brazos Valley, best known as “The Storybook Lady” hosting the weekly Storybook Hour on WTAW. She even served as the chairman of the CS parks board.
A former parks director has suggested that Thomas Park would be the perfect place for a heritage walk commemorating important events in the city of our history. Such at Heritage Walk at Thomas Park could also include important events in the life of Mable Clare Thomas.
I implore you to dream with me for just a few minutes.
What makes College Station so special? What is unique about our city? Of course, we are the home of Texas A&M. (Mable Clare and her husband were among those families that once lived on campus and then had to move off campus.) Our city was named for the train depot that stopped at A&M. (Wouldn’t a replica of that train station make a lovely bath house or perhaps a building that hosts a lending library and monthly storybook hours.) How about a train theme for our playground equipment? Our late president was recently brought by train to his final resting place at the Bush Museum. Perhaps we could have some custom play equipment made that looks like Bush’s train. (My contemporaries and I remember fondly playing on the 26′ tall Moon Rocket play equipment that could be found throughout our country in the 60’s and 70’s. There is nothing much memorable about the current cookie cutter play equipment…in fact it looks like a commercial size of the Little Tykes my sons played on in our back yard.)
And, of course the pool. The residents of the Eastgate Community of Neighborhoods all purchased their homes with the knowledge a city pool was within walking distance. In fact, every resident of this city purchased their homes knowing where the major amenities were located. To rob this community of its pool is just plain wrong. If you are looking to add something unique and fun to the pool, I would suggest we look into the possibility of a lazy river. Thomas park is the perfect shape for such an amenity, and it would draw residents from all over the city (and likely further).
These are all just ideas. I believe that if the council formed a special committee to consider these and other ideas, we could not only restore Thomas Pool but also build a park that is one of the jewels of the parks system. To think of Thomas Park as simply another neighborhood park with no community or city-wide interest is to miss a tremendous opportunity for our city.
The parks department is still operating at less than full staff. We are still asking them to do more with less. This is unsustainable and likely part of the reason that maintenance has been lacking. It is also why we are getting cookie cutter solutions instead of creative thinking. Please give our parks department the resources they need to make our parks (new and old) shining examples of what a parks system should look like.
Please also take a walk at Thomas Park in the near future. Let yourself dream of ways this lovely community park could both preserve our city’s history and bring pride and joy to all CS residents, as well as visitors to our community.