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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.
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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