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In 1998 the
City of Taylor Lake Village purchased the old Simpson Paper
Mill Park (28+ acres); along with the existing City Hall
property and the pre-existing City Park
we now own a 40+ acre tract of waterfront
parkland. The entrance is located at 500 Kirby Blvd. and
is open to the public.
The City
has worked hard to clean up our City Park. We removed a
dump site, removed substandard structures, re-roofed the
pavilion, put in a mile long decomposed granite hike and bike
trail and repaired drainage. Citizen volunteers have
committed time and energy as well. Eagle Scouts have
built two beautiful bridges, a sand volleyball court and
installed 5 park benches into concrete slabs. Citizens
planted over 800 trees in memory of those lives lost
9-11. Galveston Bay Foundation had Marsh Mania Day and
helped us restore the marsh adjacent to our pier.
However,
our pier in the City Park is unsafe and has been closed to the
public for over a year. The City did not have the funds
in our current budget to rebuild this without a tax increase
(and we all hate those!). This spring we plan on
undertaking the rebuilding of our pier if funding can be
found. Commissioner Sylvia Garcia has committed to
support us with the next major park project. Our
bathroom will need to be demolished and rebuilt to ADA
compliance. We have not negotiated the details of the
bathroom joint project but expect it to cost
$40,000-$50,000. We hope to be able to find funds for
matching grants for that project in our 2006 budget.
After
visiting eight of our local industrial facilities and meeting
with the plant managers to learn what each company
manufactures, their philosophies and safety plans, I reviewed
with them our City’s Emergency Management Plan and the city
philosophies adopted in our Vision 2020. When we spoke
about our communities needs, some members of the Association
of Bayport Companies committed funding to replace the failing
and unsafe pier to demonstrate to our citizens that they are
good neighbors and community oriented.
To date we
have received checks from Lyondell, Dow, Atofina and Odjfell.
Lyondell just received the Industry of the Year Award
from the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce for its community
involvement, performance and safety. We are awaiting the
funds committed by Haldor Topsoe and Celenese.
I have more
tours scheduled for April and hopefully they will be excited
to join in this pier project. It
is our hope that additional companies in The Association of
Bayport Companies, in their effort to foster goodwill in the
community, are willing to participate on one of two
levels. We hope that if you are a citizen who works at
one of our local plants, you will consider working with me to
set up a tour of your facility with the plant manager and
encourage your facility to join with us in this exciting park
improvement. Thank you to TLV citizen Nancy Stansfield for
coordinating the meeting/donation with Lyondell. Remember to
tell your facility, donations to a municipality are tax
deductible.
We will
have a monument that shows whether the participant contributed
on a gold or silver level. The city will fund the plaque
and the monument on which the plaque will be displayed. The
cost to be considered a Gold participant is $1,400, Silver
participants donated $750.
The
plaque’s proposed language: To express their commitment
to our community and our environment the following companies
have donated funds to the City for the building of the
Association of Bayport Companies fishing and bird-watching
pier and canoe launch.
The City of
Taylor Lake Village solicited quotes from Padgett Brothers and
A.I.G. Construction approximately one year ago. After
inspection, Curtis Padgett suggested the most appropriate plan
of action was to remove the entire current pier with the
exception of the pilings and rebuild the decking, supports and
handrail. The city welcomes other insured bidders.
We hope to receive enough grants/donations to approve a bid
and begin removal/construction this spring.
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