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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1979)
arj w-, 4-* " 4 ■ 1 _ CO »—1 a> , , u, J5 TH ■■ || THE CITY PARKS system is illustrated in this map, above, which shows the 22 present sites scattered throughout the city. Two of College Station’s newest parks, Krenek Tap Park and Oaks Park, are being developed extensively now using money from the $1.8 million bond proposal approved in 1978. Be low, this pavilion, a recent addition to Oaks Park, will be the site of a spring crafts festival in April. Sr ‘TOOTHER MATURE 693 2899 HOME OF NUTRITION juice bar smoothiesfrozen yogurt Culpepper Plaza sandwiches juices 1605 Texas Ave.South Natural Vitamins*Foods‘Cosmetics Extensive park system a goal for College Station recreation director By Gary Welch Focus Editor You live in a city that has 22 city parks. They range from one to 47 acres, totalling 281 acres, of which 90 to 100 are developed with pools, pavilions, picnic areas, nature trails and playing fields for softball, football, soccer and whatever else someone decides to play on them. Overall, a quite impressive setup. So what sized city would you say you live in? It would have to be a large one to support all those parks, right? Wrong. It is College Station, a city not renowned for its size, but one which is becoming increasingly concerned with providing for its citizens. And there is no sign of slowing down. Since last July the city, operating through the College Station Parks and Recreation De partment, has purchased six of those 22 sites, totalling about 90 acres, and there are plans to buy two more park sites in the very near future. So, in the last six months, the supply of parkland in College Station has increased about 50 percent. There are numerous reasons for this sudden increase. From the standpoint of increasing the city’s ability to pay for this expansion, the most important would have to be the $1.8 million bond proposal approved by city voters last spring. It was by far the most money given to the parks system by city residents, the previous high being a $423,000 bond proposal approved in 1976. Another reason for the sudden wealth of parks is College Station’s parkland dedication policy. It states that any land developers who establish neighborhoods inside the city limits must donate a certain amount of their land to the parks system. Besides adding a large bit of the land to the system (eight of the 22 parks were obtained this way), the policy insures a sort of neighborhood park system. And then there is Steve Beachey, the parks director, and he is possibly the most important reason of all, for he is a man with a dream. With all this money, land and responsibility thrust upon him, he has not resigned himself to building an everyday, run-of-the-mill parks system. He envisions public pavilions, fishing piers, lighted playing fields, air domes and social and cultural gatherings like this area has never seen. Yet his concern does not end with surface developments. He sees