Chet Edwards For Congress

July 15, 2005
Walling Bend Park Saved — To Remain Open

Clifton Record
By DAVID ANDERSON | Associate Editor

WALLING BEND — Congressman Chet Edwards and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials met with about 30 residents in Walling Bend Park Saturday afternoon to announce that the decision had been made to keep the park open. Budget concerns had prompted the Corps to announce earlier this year that it was proposing to close a large portion of the popular park.

A group of concerned residents and citizens protested the proposed closure, however, and gathered over 1,200 signatures on petitions in less than a week, all asking that the park be kept open.

“These good citizens, in a very logical manner, expressed their concerns, and the Corps of Engineers has listened,” Edwards told the crowd, thanking many of those involved in the proposed closing’s protest. “Thanks for your productive, active work. This was democracy in action, and the system worked.”

“I am proud of us all,” said Tom Schenck, a spokesman for the citizens’ group that gathered signatures for the petition and protested the proposed closure. “We all worked together through some hard and confusing feelings to keep the park open.”

The 40-plus persons present at the meeting burst into applause when Edwards officially announced that the park will remain open, and responded likewise to several other comments from the congressman and other officials present.

“We know we stirred some people up when we started this a few months back,” said Army Corps Col. Colonel John Minahan. “Based on the public interest, we reassessed our budget and determined that we were able to keep all of Walling Bend Park open. We look for any opportunity to provide quality recreation to our visiting public.”

Edwards said that the Corps listened to the community and its concerns, however, and reversed its original plans for the park. He said the Corps heard their concerns about how closing the park would have a negative impact on property values, economic development, and the quality of recreational opportunities for families.

“The Corps of Engineers are not the bad guys,” Edwards said, reiterating the budget constraints the agency is under. He urged those present to continue to make their voices heard, especially about the need for increased funding, and asked that they make their voices heard all the way to Washington, D.C.

Edwards said keeping the park open means a lot to him as he has been visiting Lake Whitney in official and personal capacities since the mid-1970s. He took a brief tour of “the bluffs” area with Col. Minahan before the meeting, then told those gathered he plans to bring his two boys to the park “and jump off those beautiful cliffs.”

He said that recreational opportunities like those offered by the park are important to help risk the temptations to focus on less-healthy endeavors.

“It makes my day to come here and see families having fun in God’s outdoors, in such a beautiful, outdoor environment,” Edwards said.

Col. Minahan said that while the Corps’ main objectives currently are the military effort and flood control, the agency also knows how important protecting the nation’s recreational and natural resources are, and said he is pleased to have received funding to keep the park open to the public.
Better communications also was stressed by Edwards between the Corps and the citizens, and those who protested the park’s closure promised to organize a group to help promote the lake area and to bring concerns to Corps officials before things get out of hand.

“We made a promise that we’re going to get a permanent organization going with friends of the lake, not just Walling Bend Park,” said Joann Mulhausen, owner of Lakehaven Bed and Breakfast and one of the more active citizens in the closure protests. “We want to work with the Corps to address all issues of the lake, especially safety issues, but promoting tourism and anything else that could help.”

While the park will remain open for the remainder of this budget year, and funds are available for Fiscal Year 2006, the officials stressed that nothing is guaranteed when it comes to government funding.
    

“Legally, Congress cannot commit past the budget year it is funding,” Edwards said. “We can’t even say for sure that there will be a Department of Defense budget in coming years, but we’ve had one the past 220 years.”

Edwards continued, though, to say the citizens had made an impression on the Corps about how important it is to keep the park open, and that the agency will do all it can to fund the park’s needs each year.

“Even though we are on a year-to-year budget, I guarantee that our staff will continue to work hard in support of this community to keep this park open,” added Col. Minahan.

The afternoon was not all congenial however, as Sandy Bogovich, owner of Bogey’s, a restaurant in King Creek, questioned the Corps’ position on business boycotts. She said her business had suffered as a result of her being involved in the petition drive, and said that Corps employees had stopped eating at her business.

Bogovich said those employees had been patronizing her establishment on a regular basis, then just stopped coming in.

“I asked one of them why they weren’t coming back, and I was told they were ordered not to eat in my business. When I asked who the order came from, I was told it came from Mr. (Lake Manager Ronnie) Bruggman.”

Col. Minahan and Corps Regional Director Charles Berger both replied that such policies will not be tolerated under their watches.

“If there has been such a policy, I’m sure it will be changed as a result of this discussion today,” Edwards added.

Bruggman said that he had ordered no boycott of Bogovich’s or any other business, but had warned Corps employees that they must stay neutral in the closure issue and could not sign any petitions. He chalked the issue up to miscommunication.

“We’ve got a 50-year backlog of miscommunication,” Col. Minahan agreed, “but we’re working to change that.”