Last week, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced that it had approved a record-setting amount of funding for parks across the state.
In total, more than $21 million will be allocated to 50 community parks, helping to pay for playgrounds, sports fields, splash pads, and nature trail construction and maintenance, among other improvements.
As a condition of receiving these funds, the properties must remain public parkland in perpetuity.
Dan Reece is Program Manager with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and he joined the Standard to talk about the statewide upgrades. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: On a practical level for people who love to go visit these parks, what does this $21 million mean? What should people expect to see as a result of this additional spending?
Dan Reece: For the most part, our program will cost-share on pretty much anything that either provides or supports public recreation.
Think about the local park that you went to as a kid or go to now. Pretty much anything you could find in just a typical regular local park this year, we found that playgrounds and trails were the top two requested elements, followed by just general side improvements, which could include things like utilities, parking, driveways, shade aquatic facilities, native landscaping and ball fields kind of round out the top.
I think for some of these parks, it’s… Well, the spruce-up has been somewhat overdue. This is sounds like pretty exciting stuff. And what’s more, it seems like Texas parks have really experienced a kind of visitation boom, or maybe I’m just having trouble making my bookings.
That’s absolutely correct. That came about in 2020 or so when folks found themselves cooped up at home and kind of went out and revisited what opportunities they had to be out.
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Well, speaking of park visitation, we’re in February now. Of course, spring break is just around the corner. How would you recommend folks start planning out their park visits?
For the new parks, they all have up to four years to complete their projects. So of the new grants, even the smaller, less-detailed scopes probably won’t be done until towards the end of this year.
We’ve been awarding these grants since the 1960s or so. And since that time, we have awarded funding to over 3,000 local parks across the state.
Any recommendations or favorite places to visit?
It’s a really difficult question to answer.
Who’s your favorite baby? I’m gonna say Garner State Park for me. That’s a big one for me
Garner’s definitely a great park. Texas has some of the most dedicated parks departments around. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite.
You’re such a diplomat. You’re not going to call any out, are you?
I will say that if you ever find yourself in the Texas Panhandle on a hot summer day, you can’t go wrong with visiting one of the new pools that’s recently opened up there in the towns of Littlefield, Clarendon, or Cactus. We’ve partnered with those three communities in the last five or six years, and they’re just done a phenomenal job with their pools.
What’s a website so folks can check out where to go?
My recommendation would be to just search for “TPWD local park grants.” That’ll take you straight to our website.
