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Saturday
March 20, 2010 Since 1922 |
McCollum Park set for reopening
By Jane Howard Lee
Contributor Published February 3, 2010 One of Chambers County’s most popular parks, fenced off by chain link and padlocked gates for much of the time since Hurricane Ike blew through in 2008, should reopen sometime this summer.
Chambers County officials expect to request bids in mid-March on a project that will restore and improve McCollum Park.
Located at the end of McCollum Park Road, which runs toward the bay from FM 1405, on the northern end of Beach City, the park took a heavy blow from Ike.
The park has long been a favorite spot for picnickers, nature lovers and wade fishermen. Many of them drive in from outside Chambers County to enjoy bay breezes while watching fishing boats and the occasional dolphins cruise across the water, or just to let their children frolic in the park’s play area.
It is a place for families to gather outdoors for barbecues, where children meet for rollicking birthday parties, where individuals go just to find a peaceful place to sit and read a book. It has long been a favorite spot for wade fishermen to access the water in search of speckled trout, flounder and redfish immediately around the park or wade towards a spillway.
Chambers County Commissioner (Pct. 4) Bill Wallace has been working with county, state and federal officials to get the park back into condition to welcome the public. That has meant working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over any body of water or waterway and anything that butts up against that water; the Texas General Land Office, which holds jurisdiction over the state’s shorelines, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which can pay for restoration of hurricane-damaged shoreline, among other things.
“I wish we could have moved faster, but we just now got the permits approved,” said Wallace. “We’re almost at the end of the road.
“Dealing with government is always complicated — especially the federal government,” Wallace added. “Bureaucracy moves in slow and mysterious ways.”
Ike’s winds and waves battered the park. The storm toppled or damaged several of the old pecan trees that provided such welcome shade on hot days and a fine crop of nuts in season.
The hurricane left behind a much bigger problem than that, though. The park sits on a bluff overlooking the bay and the edge of that bluff now sits about 20 feet farther back than it did before Ike.
Wallace demonstrated that the damaged bluff is actually in worse shape than it looks at a casual glance.
“Look up under there,” he said, pointing out the problem. “It didn’t break off clean … the waves undercut the bluff. Somebody could stand there close to the edge and think it is safe and then the ground could just drop right out from under them.
“That’s the main reason we had to close the park,” Wallace said.
Another reason has to do with a pottery shard discovered at the park in the 1950s.
“In 1955, someone found a piece of pottery —very, very old pottery — and that find was recorded up in Austin,” Wallace explained. “When our requests for permits worked their way through the system, the record of that pottery find popped up.”
That triggered an archeological dig, he said.
“We already have the grave of a Civil War soldier out here, and I guess maybe they thought there were some older graves or old Indian sites,” Wallace said.
The archeologists stayed at the park for about two months, pulling a series of round plugs of earth from the ground. That earth was then examined for signs that would indicate a burial site or a habitation site.
Nothing was found, Wallace said.
Wallace said he and other county officials expect the project to cost about $1.5 million.
The work involves sloping that undercut into a bank with a 30-degree slope, building concrete stairs on the bottom portion, and capping an existing, but roughly built, bulkhead.
Wallace said he hopes to save some trees near the bluff’s edge by installing some sheet pilings.
Even before the storm, access to the water was challenging, with a somewhat precarious trail through tall weeds.
“It’s going to be a lot easier,” the commissioner said.
Wallace grew up near McCollum Park and has fond memories of the place.
“I’ve been coming here since I was 2 or 3 years old. We used to pick up oysters and bring them up here and cook them,” he said, standing near the edge of the bluff. “When I was a kid, the shore used to go about 100 feet past this, but when the storms come through, the wind and the waves hammer and hammer the bluff and more and more breaks off.
“That’s always been my favorite tree over there,” Wallace said, pointing to a very old tree at one end of the park’s bluff. “I like to sit under it and read my Bible.”
Contributor Published February 3, 2010 One of Chambers County’s most popular parks, fenced off by chain link and padlocked gates for much of the time since Hurricane Ike blew through in 2008, should reopen sometime this summer.
Chambers County officials expect to request bids in mid-March on a project that will restore and improve McCollum Park.
Located at the end of McCollum Park Road, which runs toward the bay from FM 1405, on the northern end of Beach City, the park took a heavy blow from Ike.
The park has long been a favorite spot for picnickers, nature lovers and wade fishermen. Many of them drive in from outside Chambers County to enjoy bay breezes while watching fishing boats and the occasional dolphins cruise across the water, or just to let their children frolic in the park’s play area.
It is a place for families to gather outdoors for barbecues, where children meet for rollicking birthday parties, where individuals go just to find a peaceful place to sit and read a book. It has long been a favorite spot for wade fishermen to access the water in search of speckled trout, flounder and redfish immediately around the park or wade towards a spillway.
Chambers County Commissioner (Pct. 4) Bill Wallace has been working with county, state and federal officials to get the park back into condition to welcome the public. That has meant working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over any body of water or waterway and anything that butts up against that water; the Texas General Land Office, which holds jurisdiction over the state’s shorelines, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which can pay for restoration of hurricane-damaged shoreline, among other things.
“I wish we could have moved faster, but we just now got the permits approved,” said Wallace. “We’re almost at the end of the road.
“Dealing with government is always complicated — especially the federal government,” Wallace added. “Bureaucracy moves in slow and mysterious ways.”
Ike’s winds and waves battered the park. The storm toppled or damaged several of the old pecan trees that provided such welcome shade on hot days and a fine crop of nuts in season.
The hurricane left behind a much bigger problem than that, though. The park sits on a bluff overlooking the bay and the edge of that bluff now sits about 20 feet farther back than it did before Ike.
Wallace demonstrated that the damaged bluff is actually in worse shape than it looks at a casual glance.
“Look up under there,” he said, pointing out the problem. “It didn’t break off clean … the waves undercut the bluff. Somebody could stand there close to the edge and think it is safe and then the ground could just drop right out from under them.
“That’s the main reason we had to close the park,” Wallace said.
Another reason has to do with a pottery shard discovered at the park in the 1950s.
“In 1955, someone found a piece of pottery —very, very old pottery — and that find was recorded up in Austin,” Wallace explained. “When our requests for permits worked their way through the system, the record of that pottery find popped up.”
That triggered an archeological dig, he said.
“We already have the grave of a Civil War soldier out here, and I guess maybe they thought there were some older graves or old Indian sites,” Wallace said.
The archeologists stayed at the park for about two months, pulling a series of round plugs of earth from the ground. That earth was then examined for signs that would indicate a burial site or a habitation site.
Nothing was found, Wallace said.
Wallace said he and other county officials expect the project to cost about $1.5 million.
The work involves sloping that undercut into a bank with a 30-degree slope, building concrete stairs on the bottom portion, and capping an existing, but roughly built, bulkhead.
Wallace said he hopes to save some trees near the bluff’s edge by installing some sheet pilings.
Even before the storm, access to the water was challenging, with a somewhat precarious trail through tall weeds.
“It’s going to be a lot easier,” the commissioner said.
Wallace grew up near McCollum Park and has fond memories of the place.
“I’ve been coming here since I was 2 or 3 years old. We used to pick up oysters and bring them up here and cook them,” he said, standing near the edge of the bluff. “When I was a kid, the shore used to go about 100 feet past this, but when the storms come through, the wind and the waves hammer and hammer the bluff and more and more breaks off.
“That’s always been my favorite tree over there,” Wallace said, pointing to a very old tree at one end of the park’s bluff. “I like to sit under it and read my Bible.”