Every spring for the last decade I have met with the Allentown Park Department. Sometimes I have been invited for a meeting, and other years I just barged into an office, and inflicted my sermon on unappreciative ears. My sermon essentially never changes. Spend a very small portion of the park budget to maintain the iconic WPA structures, which this city could never afford to replace. Leave some openings in the Riparian Buffers, so that families might access and enjoy the creeks.
My mission has had limited success. I failed to convince city council to keep the little dam and its musical water sound by the Robin Hood Bridge. I failed to convince the city to maintain the Lehigh Parkway entrance wall, which then collapsed, closing the main park entrance for two years. My efforts have resulted in two structures being partially restored.
I lack any diplomatic skills. I'm used to officials cringing when I enter the room. My reward is when someone comes up to me in a park to complain about something there. Those people know that I care, and that I will speak out for them.
MM -
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thanks for your efforts.
I can only hope that our new park director is going to instruct park workers to mow the riparian buffers up to the creeks in all our parks.
Most of my (park) time this year has been spent in the Cedar Creek Park system. I've enjoyed (thus far) having a view of the water. What still needs to be addressed, however, is the continual flooding west of Ott Street. I've nicknamed the area "Flooded Meadows" and I believe it's what you've captured in the photo above.
Years of overflow flooding have created areas that become ponds after rain storms. This is killing trees in the park - they just don't do well in standing water. These areas will also become the intermittent home to disease-carrying mosquitos when the weather gets warmer.
To correct the problem, large areas will need to be filled in with topsoil and regraded. The creek also needs to be dredged of silt near the small bridge that connects the Rose Garden side to the pavilion side. During times when the creek itself is high but not overflowing, water breaks through the (non-existent) bank at that location and unnecessarily floods the meadows and walkways.
These are fixes that are not particularly expensive but will take some planning and commitment. Given that the area is right under the nose of the Parks Department offices, I view it as a good indicator of how our parks are being maintained.
If they can't fix what's right in front of them on a daily basis, they certainly can't properly maintain other parks throughout the city.
Unknown@9:21, I do have an "informed opinion", because I've interacted with each park director since 1993, and visit Cedarpark frequently. The new director has no intention of doing away with the useless Riparian Buffers (storm sewers piped directly into the streams, under the buffers), but I will pitch the notion of providing a few access points.
ReplyDeleteCedarpark has always flooded, being in a flood plain, as all waterways are. It is for this reason that the rose and old fashion garden are at a higher elevation.
In today's city the park and recreation departments are merged (since 2006) and most of the emphasis goes to the recreation. From my POV the current mayor and park director are a big upgrade, with "some" concern of these issues.
MM -
ReplyDeleteI'll take whatever you can get on the buffers. As you note, they are useless.
Understand there has always been flooding in Cedar Park, but it happens more than it needs to and isn't draining as quickly as it did previously. If you haven't already been down there during a moderate rainfall, go to the small bridge in the middle of the trail and watch the water pour over the low spot in the bank when it could be contained with a relatively small repair.
I'll try to work up to your level of optimism on the current Mayor (as far as park issues) and park director, but will wait to see what is actually done. We just had our first budget under the new Mayor, got a big tax increase, and I didn't hear anything about more funding for park maintenance. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that funding was in there and priorities have actually changed.
Unknown@11:27, I'm very familiar with the spot you mention. As matter of fact, I lobbied the parks foreman about the eroding bank next to the small bridge, and he in turn placed three large stones last year to attempt to stabilize the erosion.
ReplyDeleteThat diagonal path cutting across from the picnic grove, to the west end of the rose garden, never existed until 2010. The flooding isn't new, the path is.
That's the spot!
ReplyDeleteAgree that the path is new and the flooding is an old problem. But the silt buildup there, along with the bank erosion make the creek overflow during storms that the creek previously would have handled.
The 3 large stones are a good start, but the gaps between them and the silt buildup allow water to overflow at that spot. Without filling in those gaps and a minor amount of dredging, the creek will continue to overflow its banks unnecessarily.
FYI - I think the silt problem came to be when they started working on the bridge at the intersection of Cedar Crest and Parkway Boulevards a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteUnknown, about 4 years ago, someone, perhaps a fisherman, put a roll of large stones across the creek, just above the the wood bridge. It forced the water to the sides, eroding the south bank. It also created a sandbar on the other side. I prevailed upon the department to remove the row of rows, which were diverting the flow. The dirt placed between the large boulders on the eroded south bank was washed away in a recent storm.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Cedar Crest Bridge project must have affected the creek.
Mike, I was fishing in the parkway this past weekend and a tick had attached to me. The tick is a lime carrier and I must take meds for two weeks and have blood tested afterwards. Now who and what entity is going to pay for my life long treatments?
ReplyDeleteThe wild life conservancy bridge destroyers or Allentown pa and the protectors of this disfunction?