Speaking of parks...

You mention Haltom City around here and let the emails begin.  Comments and more. 

In the post concerning "White's Branch Park" (named after White's Branch creek) the cost was listed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as $1.25 million.  Though the picture we were sent shows a different amount. 

Something doesn't add up.  WHAT is it?

Ask.

And if you missed the post on things not adding up in Tarrant County, read it.

Speaking of creeks...

And Haltom City...

A Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram asks a good question about a recent article on parks in Tarrant County.

High-water mark

The Monday front page shows builders working on a "low-water crossing" along Whites Creek in "Haltom City's new park." (See: "Splendor in our backyard is increasingly accessible")

Please help me understand why they would not build a high-water crossing. It seems like that is the more dangerous condition. Just how low is the crossing going to be? And how will they close the crossing when the water gets high?

-- Howard M. Cornell III, Arlington

That's a good question, sir.  Especially since just yards away from the park, is where the child drowned in one of the Haltom City floods.  We didn't see any mention of that in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram park article. 

We did see every city around has their hand out for park grants.  Why do we have a feeling the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) is involved in them all?  The paper didn't mention that either.

The 20-acre site, whose working name is Whites Branch Park, will have a 20-by-30-foot picnic pavilion and separate playground structures for children 5 and younger and for 5- to 12-year-olds, all surrounded by a hike/bike trail system. Perhaps most important, given the North Texas climate, the park will feature the city's biggest splash pad.

The $1.25 million park project will be partly funded by $700,000 in grants from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Henry said. The city is making up the difference.

The city also plans to join the new park to Buffalo Ridge Park by acquiring 120 flood-prone properties. When the project is completed, park visitors will have access to the Buffalo Ridge hike-and-bike trail, eventually linking to a 15-mile trail system through Watauga and Fort Worth.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/04/15/3885821/tarrant-county-cities-are-adding.html#storylink=cpy

Alexandria Collins

This is Ally. A beautiful child with a beautiful smile. Ally died two years ago in June during the floods in North Texas.

She was ripped from her mothers arms by the current as they tried to escape their home due to rising flood waters in the middle of the night.

It wasn't raining where Ally lived, it was raining north of there.

Those downstream had no warning.

There had been talk, rhetoric, of moving the homes away from the creek in the past. There had been studies of the creek in the past.

The map below was published in 2005 by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (we will tell you WHO they are soon). It shows Ally's street completely under water, two years prior to her drowning.

Another case of "Nothing was ever done, it just got worse". A child dying because nothing was ever done is, in a word, unacceptable. And if the government knew loss of life was probable, WHY was nothing done?

What does it take for something to get done? Besides money. Maybe if some of the Trinity Uptown money was spent to protect lives and property instead of economic development...then no lives would be lost. Which is more important?

Our thoughts are with Ally's family during the anniversary of what had to be the worst day of their lives.

She is not forgotten.

Father's Day Flood

If you don't remember the Father's Day floods, you're not from around here. Two years ago it started raining and didn't stop for weeks. If you weren't flooding, you knew someone who was. Lives and homes were destroyed. It should have been a wake up call to local governments to correct the issues, we don't think they were listening.

Interesting video, don't miss the credits. We believe this home is close to the location of the Extreme Home Makeover home that was also destroyed in this flood.

07 Rain Repeat

The nonstop rain reminds us of June 2007 when it wouldn't stop raining and wreaked havoc on so many lives in the metroplex.

Yesterday's Fort Worth Star Telegram daily newspaper had an article that discussed Haltom City, Watauga and Fort Worth wanting to expand their walking trails and add a park. The map for this project is confusing to us as it is on/in a creek. White's Branch Creek to be exact, the same one that took the life of a beautiful, vivacious four year old, in June two years ago.