Marble Falls looks at memorial for racer killed during LakeFest

JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER

MARBLE FALLS — Marble Falls Parks and Recreation Commissioner Steve Manley asked commissioners to consider renaming the boat ramp at Lakeside Park after racer Mike Fry.

Manley spoke during the commissioners regular meeting Sept. 8.

Fry, 52, died after his boat crashed during LakeFest on Lake Marble Falls on Aug. 9.

“Let’s have some kind of commemoration,” Manley said. “LakeFest has a significant impact in the community and been around for 25 years.”

Marble Falls Parks and Recreation Director Robert Moss said that while honoring Fry by renaming the boat ramp “is a neat idea,” he reminded the commissioners that with development happening at Lakeside Park, everything, including the boat ramp, is tied in there.

Commission Vice Chairman Mark McCary, who also is the president of the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is examining options for how best to honor Fry during the next few months.

“I don’t think the chamber could come up with a better way than to name a race after an individual, who passed away,” he said.

In the end, the commissioners took no action, preferring to allow the chamber to take the lead on how best to honor Fry.

The city of Marble Falls is weeks away from opening the Westside Park Community Hall, a building sold by former businessman George Ortiz that is located next to Westside Park.

Moss told the commission the construction work has been complete and new appliances will be installed in the kitchen, which will make it an attractive option for renting the facility for parties, exercise classes and other small gatherings.

“It looks like a totally different place,” Moss said. “We’ve remodeled the outside, it’s been repainted, it’s well on its way.”

The hall is a 1,500-square-foot facility. The city is installing a new kitchen sink, stove, refrigerator and microwave. The facility has a new heating and cooling system. A covered porch and an uncovered porch are in the back, and staff members will install new grills and benches around the area. Moss said he estimates the facility’s maximum occupancy is 75 people.

And since the building wasn’t named after an individual, the commissioners were able to chose a moniker without going through the naming process. Moss asked the commissioners to select a name with Westside Park in it so people will immediately know where the building is located.

“We’re trying to capture what would be going on,” he said. “I think that part of the area of the community would get more use out of that.”

Moss said his office has already received calls about when it will be ready to rent, which he believes will be in October. Moss said the department is doing an overall fee review of all facilities that city hall rents to the public. He estimates the cost to be $100-300 per day.   

The commissioners also heard an update on an incomplete soccer field at The Greens on Avenue K. It’s located at the intersection of Avenue K and Sixth Street. McCary asked for a report because 90 eight-and-under players signed up to play on Granite Country Youth Soccer Association’s 10 teams.

“That’s a lot of kids,” he said.

Moss said city crews planted Bermuda grass seed and watered the facility in the spring, but since that time, Public Works staff shifted priorities to the road projects at Los Escondido and Rocky Road.

The other issue is that while the month of May brought record rain and the city went to stage 2 water restrictions, the heat of July and August forced parks and recreation to cut back on irrigation. Moss said drinking water for citizens took precedent and noted that recycled water isn’t used at The Greens because purple piping, which transports the water, hasn’t been installed there.

“We had good intentions in the spring,” he said. “We’re working on getting recycled water. That project is running a bit behind as well. It’s a matter of priorities.”

City Engineer Eric Belaj said the city applied for a $50,000 Lower Colorado River Authority grant to help offset the cost of installing purple pipe, which he estimates to be $100,000 since it requires laying pipe from the wastewater plant to The Greens. City Hall has a balance of $40,000 for purple pipe to be installed at The Greens.

“We gave them our reasons why we needed it,” Belaj said. “For whatever reason, we didn’t get the grant.”

While members of the Capital Improvements Projects committee were creating its list a few months ago, Belaj said staff members gave reasons why the purple piping needed to be on the list. He said the CIP committee put it at number six.

“There’s just not a lot of money laying around,” he said.    

Then, staff members pitched the idea to the Economic Development Corp.

“That came to a dead end,” the engineer said. “This year isn’t a good year to fund utility projects.”

Moss said the goal is get back to work on the field in the spring.

“We had all good intentions of getting those fields up,” he said. “It didn’t happen.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com