Megan Navarro
WIMBERLEY — The city of Wimberley announced that Erica Flocke has been promoted to the director of Parks and Recreation — and she is looking forward to the projects that are up and coming within the community.
Flocke has been serving as interim director for the last three months and prior to that, she worked in the role of parks operations manager for more than three years, where she oversaw the daily operations of all of the parks within the city of Wimberley. Before coming to Wimberley, she briefly served with the city of Buda, as well as The Woodlands Township as a program coordinator for several years.
Transitioning over to director of the department, Flocke explained, feels like a continuation of the work that the team has been doing.
“I really respect this community. I live here and I work here, so I'm really involved with our community. I want to see good things happen for our parks,” she said.
There are several significant projects that are underway for the Wimberley parks system, with the largest being the Blue Hole Nature Center. This initiative — secured through a $3 million bond from Hays County — is currently in the design phase, aimed to be a state-of-the-art environmental education and community hub, as well as a One Water facility with interactive classrooms, nature-based exhibits and restored prairie and wetland ecosystems, according to the department.
“We are still in the design of that. We are taking our time with that. It’s pretty intentional. We want that design to reflect Wimberley's story and everything,” Flocke said. “That’s going to be a pretty long-term project over the next several years.”
The city also recently closed on two Requests for Proposals (RFP) for a playground at Martha Knies Community Park and an aquatic feasibility study, which will look at the possibility of installing a swimming pool or splash pad in Wimberley.
For the park, Flocke said that they shared a survey with the community, which was available Jan. 12-20, in order to collect feedback on what residents would like to see for the proposed playground designs. Thinking that the department would only receive about 20 responses, it had at least 200 within a day.
“It’s great. I really, truly do care what people think, even if I don't agree with it. So, it's really nice to hear from the community and see what they want down there. They're voicing their opinion on RFPs that were already submitted to the city,” she said. “I am really glad that people are interacting that way.”
Flocke added that she anticipates that the scoring committee will make a decision on the playground design at Martha Knies Community Park in early February. She hopes that the public will continue to value their local parks in the future.
“The playground is over 20 years old. I'm hoping that it just makes Wimberley stand out a little bit more and it makes people more proud to live here than they already are,” Flocke said. “Wimberley has a really strong ownership over their park, which they should. I’m glad that they do. The community, I think, is going to take more ownership over that.”
To learn more about the Wimberley Parks and Recreation Department, visit www.wimberleyparksandrec.com.
