R-2008-06 adopt 2008 Update of Year 2002 Parks, Trails, and Open Space Master

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Kathryn Aguilar, 3119 Fondren, La Porte, Texas, 77571. Hello Council, Kathryn Aguilar again, I did look at the City's plan for the parks and it was on the website; I think Gretchen told us about it on the 13th and I looked at it before our meeting on the 15th up here and in general its not all that specific about the parks, there's no drawing of, for example, Sylvan Beach Park, it's just got a general drawing, and you know the words (interjection by Mayor Porter "Sylvan Beach doesn't belong to us. That belongs to Harris County.") Right, so that's not going to be within it, right. It does mention Sylvan Beach Park though and it does talk about the Pavilion being an important community asset and being worthy of being preserved, I guess that which does mention that in the plan and I did wonder about I guess; this is not within the plan it says that "where there are opportunities Bay Front area should be acquired and the Bay Front area should be expanded in terms of parks. That speaks to Happy Harbor and to whether or not the City would be acquiring that land because it would be an extremely valuable addition as parkland and, you know, continuing on up the bay; I think that's one thing, and I also noticed, I guess I personally noticed, that there really was no emphasis on, you ,know, restroom facilities in the park, again that seems like just a normal thing to want to have there, permanent restroom facilities and it just doesn't seem to exist and certainly in Sylvan Beach Park and I'm not sure about the other La Porte parks, and just a general comment; you know as a park person I have been to many, many parks in the area and especially noticing the difference in building and investment in parks for example in Houston, Memorial and Hermann Park. I've taken my children to those parks as well as Sylvan Beach Park for at least 20 years you know and in that time I've noticed so much more going on in Houston in terms of the parks and the way they've been treated and valued and the amount of investment in them. Just for example in Hermann Park they've added, they've rebuilt Miller Outdoor Theater, they rebuilt the little train at the zoo, they rebuilt the reflection pond, near the... and they've built the Japanese Garden which is, all of it beautiful, millions and millions of dollars worth of projects. I realize that's Houston and not La Porte, but in that same time frame the only thing I've noticed Sylvan Beach Park changing is adding the skateboard park, which is good; I'm just saying, you know, there's just, I think we're not being aggressive May 19, 2008 Public Hearing Page 2 of 3