During the Monday Levelland City Council meeting, Parks and Cemetery director Dustin Reichelt updated the council in regard to Texas Parks and Wildlife Trail Grant Update.
In 2019 the City of Levelland applied for a trail grant with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for Lobo Lake Park. The trail grant will allow the city to pave the walking trail around Lobo Lake, add trash cans and benches to beautify and improve the park trail system.
The city received news that they had won the trail grant in 2022 and the grant became available to sign just recently.
Reichelt explained to the council that the grant will help pave the trail around Lobo Lake Park, specifically starting at 13 th Street where the bridge is located all the way to playground area of the park. From there, the trail will connect to the existing trail next to the amphitheater and continue around the east side of the lake and connect to the fishing dock and go back to 13 th Street.
Reichelt says the paving will cover a lot of the existing dirt trail and provide a better trail that won’t be as affected by the rain and become muddy or overgrown with grass that grows through the dirt trail.
Trash cans and benches will also be included around the concrete paved trail that is four feet wide, handicap accessible, to help maintain the park from litter and provide more comfortable seating around the lake and park.
This city is now waiting for a notice to proceed letter to begin the project which is slated to begin in October 2023. The tail grant is a 80-20 match with a total project cost of $76,500, of which $15,300 is the match amount from the parks donation fund which was approved by the council in 2019.
“The parks donation fund is very important as it is a voluntary fund that the department uses for grant matching within parks and cemetery,” said Reichelt. “We want to continue this process in the future for other additional grants.”
Once the notice to proceed letter is received from the Texas Parks and Wildlife to move on with construction, a request for proposal will be filed and the process will begin. Reichelt wants to complete additional projects that are already on the docket before moving forward which will allow the trail project to begin completion in the next fiscal year which begins in October.
“This trail will be laid in a horseshoe type layout and will connect the random pieces of trail already in place,” explained Reichelt. “This will improve the aesthetics of Lobo Lake and the walking quality.”
The deadline for reapplying for the grant is in February and Reichelt also mentioned to the council that he is looking to do something similar for Brasher Lake.
The process had taken quite a bit of time to get through the proper channels as the funding is coming from a federal entity and COVID-19 also played a role in slowing down the process.
Reichelt does not foresee the project taking a prolonged period of time for completion when construction starts, but could not give a definitive timeline until the project gets closer to October.
In a separate conversation, Reichelt touched on a grant project that was recently completed for Brasher Lake.
Six months ago, the department of fishing within the Texas Parks and Wildlife reached out to Reichelt and his department regarding grant funding opportunities with aeration.
An irrigation system was previously placed at Lobo Lake which improved the quality of the ponds and fish and the funding opportunity was taken advantage of and done at Brasher Lake recently.
“In 2019, we placed aeration at Lobo Lake and that has been very successful with less fish being killed by adding cleaner water more oxygen to the water,” explained Reichelt. “All this stuff was done with zero cost to the city and the labor was our contribution to getting the funding for the irrigation system.
City personnel within the parks and cemetery department are ramping up their mowing responsibilities as the rain continues to become more frequent. Additionally, the city pool located that the city park has become operational since June 3 and will continue throughout the summer months.
As youth softball and baseball leagues begin to wrap up at the Oxy Sports Complex, the soccer light project is finally gaining headway as supply chain issues have affected the timeline. Now a two-year project due to waiting for the lights, ditching has begun at the soccer fields with the lights and installation taking place in the coming weeks.
Reichelt added that LG Griffin Park has received the upgrades the LCDC planned for with the new sign being placed and the pavilion construction completed. The department is waiting for lettering of the sign to come in before calling the project completed, but Reichelt believes everything will be finished before the Juneteenth celebration later this month. George Price Park is next to receive a hand that’s with handful or renovations including the pavilion located at the park.