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Hernando Today

New Park Pricey, Lacks Historical Connection

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By JOHN HERBERT

From Where I Sit

Published: May 20, 2008

If it's a refreshing breeze right off the Gulf you want on a humid summer day, it should be a no-brainer that Hernando Countians head for the recently expanded Bayport Park, "the finest public park in Florida," some local patriots boast.
A bit of hyperbole, perhaps. They have most likely never enjoyed snorkeling above the coral reefs off the sandy beaches of the John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo.
Officially reopened a few days ago, waterfront Bayport has more than tripled in size from 1.5 to 5 acres, much of it badly needed parking for cars and trucks towing boat trailers.
Much of Bayport's underbrush has been cleaned up to make way for a charming, palm-tree-shaded parkland where a dozen new picnic tables have been laid out along with a 150-foot circular, raised boardwalk — made of aluminum.
The boardwalk is the new park's only possible blemish. A bright metal walkway doesn't fit in with an otherwise pastoral setting. The aluminum benches are going to get too hot for sitting. The boardwalk itself is going to reflect so much sun that strollers will be blinded. A strong hurricane blast will twist the boardwalk into designer junk.
All in all, we'll be much more comfortable watching those fabled Bayport sunsets from the park's traditional wooden benches. Even if a new parking bottleneck bugs us.
The popular wooden fishing pier on Bayport's southern shore remains intact. Bayport's crabs (and seagulls) are as plentiful as ever. The occasional manatee even swims lazily by the old wooden pier.
A question, however: Why on earth are we spending $1.5 million on an expanded park entity when Hernando County is sweating over its meager hoard of tax pennies, laying off teachers, axing bus schedules or terminating health care facilities?
Bayport was straining under years of weekend shortages of parking spaces for all the boat trailers. Surely, this problem could have been relieved by simply clearing away some of the bushes — without a need for paving. Much of the new parking is on grass, as it is.
One glance at the new park and you get the impression Hernando County is rolling in the green stuff — and I don't mean grass.
Frustrated fishermen in search of parking alternatives could have been directed, instead, to available spaces at nearby Jenkins Creek or Linda Petersen Park. Both waterfront facilities are underused.
It doesn't really make sense, either, that the new Bayport has doubled restroom capacity at a reported cost of $65,000. The old building was both clean and adequate and, apparently, just as hurricane-resistant.
I'm a little astonished, as long as investments were being made, that nothing was done at the new Bayport to recall the old Bayport's illustrious history as a bustling Civil War smugglers' harbor and battlefield staging area. At the very least, some mounted pictures and commemorative captions could have enhanced the landmark's 1863 heyday.
Citrus County, just to the north, has already successfully excavated and staged a low-key Civil War-era display at its Sugarmill park site near Homosassa. It draws just a few sightseers every day — but Citrus County is on the historical map. Isn't a boost in Hernando County tourism one of our own goals?
With many active amateur historians, Hernando County should have been convinced to lay down a few yards of railroad track and even rounded up a seedy century-old boxcar or caboose to dedicate to Bayport's lively past. The additional parkland was available, anyway, rented to the county by Swiftmud for a token fee.
Still, Bayport's new park is a cool place to cool down when the summer's getting hot and sticky; well-timed for now, when we're trying to put the brakes on our gas mileage!

John Herbert, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill.

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