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(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Spivey Hill Challenge featuring a 5K, Walk & Talk and Fun Run took off from Firemen’s Park in November. The Graham Parks Department Board of Directors recently met and spoke about developments with trails in the park.
The city of Graham’s engineer was notified in late January that Texas Parks and Wildlife Department denied its redesign of the trail project in Firemen’s Park and a new design will be required to move forward with the project.
Extending the trails within Firemen’s Park has been a goal of the Graham Parks Department Board of Directors. One part of that process with TPWD grant funding is determining historical sites before construction can move forward.
“(TPWD) partners with Texas Historical Commission, because if you've got something that's dedicated as park land in perpetuity, that enables preservation if a historical thing is there,” City Manager Eric Garretty said. “One of the conditions of their grant is you have to go to the Texas Historical Commission, and they have to certify that the project that you're doing won't disturb anything that's there that's potentially, in their estimation, is historical.”
TPWD determined an area behind the softball fields near Firemen’s Park contains an archaeological site.
“(It was) some type of sawmill or like a grist mill... that the remnants that they uncovered indicated that there was some type of commercial facility there,” Garretty said.
The city’s contracted engineering firm Jacob & Martin redesigned the trail to go around the impacted historical area, but TPWD denied the most current redesign submitted.
“They didn't like the redesign, not necessarily because he did design around it, but they were worried that even construction activities in that area could disturb that site,” Garretty said.
The parks board met Tuesday, Feb. 18 and requested the engineering firm to return with ideas for trails that the board could examine in a future meeting.
“We're stuck in the design phase, where we're going to have to take another look at our design, which involves the actual layout of the trails, to now completely avoid this designated area for historical preservation,” Garretty said.
The city will have to resubmit to TPWD their new redesign and seek approval again before they can move forward with a potential bidding and construction process.
The city of Graham received $1.3 million from the Brazos River Authority (BRA) for park improvement projects in June 2018.
In 2020 and 2021, the city applied for a Recreational Trails and Local Park grant through TPWD to extend the scope of the existing money they received for park improvements in 2018 from the BRA. The city was awarded grants from TPWD in May 2021.
Firemen’s Park projects completed with that funding are the construction of a new playground, two new dog parks, new and renovated holes for the disc golf course and bathroom renovations.
Alongside the Firemen’s Park trails project, the city recently submitted a grant to be considered for funding from the Texas Department of Transportation for a hike and bike trail from Shawnee Springs Park to Firemen’s Park.
The proposed project would construct a paved, shared use path that follows Salt Creek for approximately three miles and connects the two parks.
“We’re probably looking at this point in our cost estimate at total construction costs for both projects at about $1.9 million,” Garretty said in February. “The way the program documentation reads, there’s a 20% match associated with grants under the Transportation Alternatives Program.”
The Salt Creek trail project would be funded through the Transportation Alternative Set-Aside (TA) Program from TxDOT administered for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects in communities.
Garretty said the city is early on in the process of that grant.
“The step that we're at is you submitted your phase one application, and you're waiting to be informed if you will be invited to submit a detailed application for phase two,” he said.
