TYLER, Texas — The City of Tyler invested more than $4 million into updates for nearly 30 parks over the last couple of years, in the nick of time before COVID-19 hit East Texas.
While many places were closed during the shutdown, parks were still wide open. Russ Jackson, the parks director, says more people have been visiting as well.
“It's been good to see people really utilize the parks,” he said. "There’s a lot more better things for your mind and body and doing those type of activities instead of staying inside a building.”
The pandemic did have an effect on the parks, extra cleaning has taken place and some openings were delayed, such as the Glass Recreation splash pad, which opened earlier this month. "We finished up the Fun Forest as far as the pool and the splash pad there,” Jackson said. “In the end we weren’t able to open up.”
Typically, after finishing improvements the parks staff, elected officials and the community celebrate with a grand opening, another thing that hasn’t been able to happen due to COVID-19. "It's sad to the lot of our crews that have been involved a lot of sweat, a lot of hard work,” he said. “We're not getting to showcase but we're not in it for the show, we're in it for the public."
Jackson says the City is even considering having an extended season because of the heavy use of parks as well as some updates having just wrapped up or about to, like at the Glass Recreation Center and Emmett J. Scott Park.
While the Fun Forest Pool didn’t get to open as planned this summer, Jackson feels the anticipation is building in hopes for a grand opening next year. "We go out there, there's still things going on and you see people looking at the new equipment, they're looking from above the hill, down upon the platforms, and you see children that are excited about it," he said.
There are also more enhancements planned for the next year for several Tyler’s parks like Lindsey, Faulkner and Pollard.
“We're looking at possibly in the neighborhood of about another 8,000 square feet of park skating surface,” Jackson said. “Some bathroom renovations to go with Faulkner Park, Lindsay Park. Pollard Park is one we've got our eyes on to do some freshening up there."