Hernando Today
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Bayport Pride
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Published: May 15, 2008
BAYPORT - Susan Richards surveyed the view and offered her assessment.
"This feels like Florida," the Timber Pines resident said as she sat Thursday on a bench on a new, 144-foot-long aluminum walkway and observation deck in the new portion of Bayport Park.
Just a few minutes before, about 60 people basked in the glory of a cloudless sky, a cool gulf breeze and the completion of the project that was nearly 10 years in the making.
Residents and officials from a plethora of organizations gathered under palms and pines Thursday in the new portion of Bayport Park. A hundred yards away, the tide lapped on the island's now-accessible western shore.
The county reopened the park May 1 after a six-month, $1.4 million renovation and expansion. The formerly 1.5-acre park grew onto five acres owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud.
Plans for the park were first hatched in 1998, recalled County Commission Chairman Chris Kingsley, who was on the board at the time.
The work included new restrooms connected to county sewer lines, additional parking for cars and vehicles with boat trailers and the showpiece: a winding walkway, flanked by picnic pavilions, leading to the observation deck that offers sweeping gulf views once obscured by thick brush.
Many boaters had voiced frustration about the lack of parking.
"We needed this," Ridge Manor resident Richard Golder said Thursday as he prepared to ease his 15-foot ProCraft down the boat ramp.
The money for the project came from the county's Environmentally Sensitive Lands Fund. The county had planned to use the funds toward the purchase of the land, but Swiftmud agreed to lease the land to the county at a nominal fee so the money could be put toward construction costs.
"Without each of these organizations working together, this would never have happened," county Parks and Recreation Director Pat Fagan told the crowd.
Fagan praised his staff, especially senior project manager Al Toler, who visited the site nearly every day and whose suggestions saved the county thousands of dollars.
Judy Whitehead, chairwoman of the Swiftmud governing board who grew up in Hernando County, recalled coming to the island for church and school picnics. Her mother enjoyed watching the water, she said.
"It was meaningful for her, and I know it will be enjoyed by many people in the future," Whitehead said.
Among the predictable back-patting came a surprise of sorts: Fagan made sure to mention the name of Bayport resident Adrian Kilby, a staunch environmentalist who opposed the initial design of the park.
Kilby, who lives just a few hundred yards from the park's entrance on land that has been in his family for generations, helped convince the county to keep more trees and use less asphalt, Fagan said.
Kilby's input "is part of the reason this park turned out so well," Fagan said.
Kilby didn't attend the ceremony and couldn't be reached Thursday.
Bill Korn, chairman of the Sensitive Lands Committee, said the park is the best of the 180 or so public parks he's visited in Florida, and that the design strikes a good balance by adding some manmade amenities while still leaving Mother Nature's handiwork intact.
"I think," Korn said, "we got it right."
Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.
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