East Texas

By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer

HENDERSON -- Major park upgrades, construction of a civic center and rebuilding streets are in the offing as Henderson plays "catch-up" now that everything is looking positive for the city, says City Manager Randall Freeman.

"Through the '80s and part of the '90s, we didn't have a lot of growth, so our budgets were real tight. The growth is picking up here -- our building permits are up and are staying up, our sales tax is up and staying up, so we are able to do some things we haven't done in a long time," Freeman said.

Despite indications of an economic downturn nationally, the city manager believes growth will continue in Henderson, because Henderson Economic Development Corporation has attracted "good industry" and the city is benefiting from gas exploration due to an abundance of natural resources in Rusk County.

The city manager said there is also a high probability that the city will be successful in applying for grants to help fund projects.

More and more drilling related companies are locating in the area following discovery in the last couple of years of a major new natural gas field, called the Haynesville Shale, in East Texas and northwest Louisiana, the largest found in years.

"If they locate in the city, which a lot of them have, our sales tax and property valuations are affected, so the economic outlook here is good, regardless of what is going on in the rest of the country," Freeman said.

The more gas wells are drilled around and in the city, the employee base inside the city for drilling companies increases, causing the city to benefit from gas exploration. Three power plants that are major employers are located in the county, with lignite coal mining continuing.

"We just expect it (the Henderson economy) to continue to grow," Freeman said. "Economically, things are doing pretty well here right now and have been for the last couple of years," so the city is moving forward on some projects, Freeman said.

For example, the city awarded "almost a million dollars" in street renovation contracts this year. A dozen streets will be redone. The current work follows the rebuilding of approximately 120 streets after a $5 million bond issue in 2006.

The city has initiated a phased approach to improving parks that had fallen into a state of disarray in the last 10-15 years when the city operated under a "short budget," the city manager said.

The first upgrade will be to Fair Park, a 13-acre centrally located area in the middle of town on Fair Park Street, adjacent to Henderson Community Center.

"You wouldn't recognize it as a park right now," Freeman said. "It's an old, old park" that currently only has a dilapidated tennis court, a baseball field built in the 1930s and a walking trail.

The city acquired 15 acres last year to enlarge the park to 28 acres. This year, the city landed a grant to pay for construction of a 2,000-foot extension of the park's 3,300-foot walking trail, which is under way, and applied for a second trails grant for $100,000, plus a $500,000 park improvement grant. The grants are federal funds awarded by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

"I think we have a good chance (of receiving both grants) because the last time the city applied for a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department grant was in 1995, so they haven't spent anything on us in a long time," Freeman said.

The second trails grant required a 20 percent ($20,000) match from the city, while the parks grant required a $500,000 match. Since the city gave a tax abatement to Willie George on new property he developed after donating land for the park expansion, TP&W credited $155,000 for the land toward the matching funds the city had to provide for the parks grant. Remaining actual city cash expenditures to meet the match requirement will total $345,000. The city will budget half of that sum in each of the next two fiscal years, according to the city manager.

Altogether, approximately $1.2 million is allotted over two years to upgrade Fair Park.

The second trails grant will fund placement of lights on the entire trail and other trail improvements.

The parks grant will fund refurbishing the tennis courts and ball field. The ball field will be restored to its original, historical condition when it hosted East Texas minor league ball teams in the '30s and '40s. There will be landscaping, irrigation installed and overgrown areas thinned. The first phase will include putting in pavilions, rest rooms and play equipment.

An entrance to the park will be developed off U.S. Highway 79 winding through the woods. The city is considering putting in an area that sprays water for children to run through and "down the road, we will have a pool there," Freeman said.

"It's all about money. We are going to continue to apply for grants and each year we will be dedicating out of our budget a specific amount to parks. If the money is there, we will do it (more park improvements)," he said.

A master park plan developed this year calls for completion of Fair Park and development of walking trails across the city connecting all parks and neighborhoods over a 10-12-year time frame.

A civic center to be constructed in Lake Forest Park off U.S. Highway 64 is in the design phase.

Planning for upgrading Lake Forest Park is on hold pending finalization of the civic center plans. "We won't know how much space the civic center will actually take and how much will be left until the civic center is built and completed," Freeman said.

The city manager anticipates ground-breaking for the civic center will be in September or October.

Approximately $4 million is earmarked for the civic center. The funding includes about $1.5 million in donations raised by a committee over several years, about $1.5 million committed by Henderson Economic Development Corporation in half-cent sales tax revenues, a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of $1,028,000 and a $300,000 grant from the Office of Rural Development.

The city applied for the FEMA grant because of plans to make the facility dual purpose to serve as both a civic center and a storm shelter.

After completion of the civic center, Freeman said, the city will rebuild all of the streets in Lake Forest Park and upgrade the park generally. "But you don't want to do anything to it while they are building a big building and cement trucks are driving in and out," he said.