City crews were clearing brush this week at Lake Kyle in anticipation of construction beginning Monday. (Photo by Jonathan York)
by JONATHAN YORK
“In the spring when all the wildflowers are blooming,” he began, letting out a little sigh, “this is a nice place to be.”
The Kyle parks director was standing on a 119-acre tract that the city bought with grant money. It’s the site of what will be called Lake Kyle Park and opened to the public, he hoped, by March.
March seemed a long way off, though. Much of the life around him was in some state of crisis, from the trees that were dying off into the water to the condition of the water itself.
“The fish are very stressed right now,” he said. “There’s not much oxygen in the water because of the heat and the lack of rain, and so they’re really stressed.
“Now we’re on the verge of an algae bloom, a green algae bloom, and if we don’t get some rain soon it’s not gonna be a good time.”
But construction would begin in October, he said. Rain or no rain.
Kyle is so parched these days that some pedestrians were recently astounded to spot live gar in a hole in the Blanco riverbed. It’s all too much summer with no place to fish--and Urbanowicz finds that unacceptable.
When the park opens the pond will be well-stocked. Visitors can also expect picnic benches, a wheelchair-accessible walking trail, a horseshoe pit, a pavilion and a playground.
They can’t expect swimming or boating. The water’s not fresh enough to swim and not deep enough to boat. But there may be opportunities for children to learn to canoe.
“It’s not a fresh-running lake, it’s a detention lake,” Urbanowicz said. “Call it what it is. It’s just a detention pond.” Then he smiled and said, “But it is a very big detention pond.”
Lake Kyle lies in the floodplain between a subdivision and another tract that the city owns. There are ducks and migrating birds and nutria that chew the cypress trees, and briefly there was a beaver. It got caught.
“I ain’t never seen it this dry,” said Arthur Zamarripa, a park foreman whose crew gathered dead trees and manmade trash. The water was down far enough that they could reach where they had not been able to before. “We’ve gotta take what God gives us, you know?”
Lake Kyle construction
What: The city is building Lake Kyle Park on 119 acres. It will include a stocked pond, picnic benches, a wheelchair-accessible walking trail, a horseshoe pit, a pavilion and a playground.
When: Construction begins Monday and will take an estimated 90-120 working days. The project is scheduled to open to the public in March.
Where: 700 Lehman Road
How Much Money: Grant from Texas Parks & Wildlife, $500,000; grant from Hays County Parks: $445,734; cost to taxpayers, $0
