By Moses Leos III
Soccer is life for weekend warrior Ruben Mondagron, who often plays the beautiful game with friends at Gregg Clark Park.
But the pitch they play on is anything but beautiful. Instead of green grass, large paths of cracked, dry earth welcome the group. According to Mondragon, it’s led to several injuries.
But with almost all of the city’s ballparks in a similar state, the Kyle City Council and the Kyle Parks and Recreation Department sought to fix the issue.
Their solution will encompass a $390,000 renovation to all four of the city’s parks.
“My hope is that team sports can use our facilities, and be of good, high quality fields, for our kids to use,” Kyle Mayor Todd Webster said in a phone interview Monday.
Parks were a priority during the 2015 city council budget sessions, Webster said. But his concern for the parks hearkened to his mayoral campaign. A recurring theme was the disappointment from people who couldn’t use the fields for youth sports team practices.
Webster said the conservative budgeting of previous councils didn’t justify the lack of investment in “community resources.” However, he did say their fiscal restraint has allowed the city to now make that investment.
“There’s no excuse for it … you have to maintain these things,” Webster said. “Hopefully, we’ll do what it takes to not let the deterioration continue.”
The city’s plan to improve its parks begins with rehabilitating the fields.
According to Kyle Parks and Recreation Director Kerry Urbanowicz, the city plans to install irrigation systems in all city owned ball fields.
He said a lack of irrigation has “completely destroyed” some fields, which he said are now too dangerous to play on.
“Our goal is to have all of the sports fields irrigated, and then this spring, we’ll go and seed [the fields],” Urbanowicz said. “By this time next year, we’ll have green grass.”
But growing grass won’t be the sole improvement. Kyle also plans to bring in new equipment, ranging from bases to goal posts. It will also purchase maintenance equipment.
A secondary goal of the park rehabilitation will be adding shade structures to the playscapes.
Webster also fielded that request from concerned people, primarily during the summer months.
“In Texas, if you don’t have shaded playgrounds, then they aren’t going to be usable,” Webster said.
Several other improvements will be made to specific items in two parks. One will be the improvement to the bathroom facilities at Gregg Clark Park.
According to Urbanowicz, those haven’t been renovated in roughly 20 years.
“After 20 years of heavy use, they look pretty bad,” Urbanowicz said. He went on to say the city plans to place new fixtures, lights and partitions.
Other bathroom facilities will receive a fresh coat of paint.
Improving the city’s only disc golf course at Steeplechase is also a focus. The process will take two phases, which includes replacing signs and baskets.
The goal, according to Urbanowicz is to turn the disc golf course into a “state championship level course.” He said the Parks and Recreation Department will ask for more funding in the future.
However, Webster cautioned that the improvements, especially to the field, will take time.
The city is aiming for completion within the fiscal year, with field renovation taking place in the winter.
“There might be a period of time when the grass is growing when the fields can’t be used,” Webster said.
For Kyle resident Raymond Aguilar, who’s seen the field at Gregg Clark Park deteriorate, improvements are well worth the wait.
“It’d be nice if they put some grass and fix things up,” he said. “But it takes time, just like anything else.”
