We saw an opportunity here to expand what we have and just again tie them together and just make it one big park to serve a larger part of the community.
ALTON — City officials prepared to officially open the newest addition to Josefa Garcia Park in Alton on Wednesday morning to jubilation for a long-awaited quality of life project.
The city of Alton hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the west side expansion of the park, located at 1619 E. Main Ave. in Alton.
Carol G. Perez, Mission CISD superintendent, reminisced on the memories she had of her aunt, Josefa Garcia, the park’s namesake, at the ceremony.
“We are very, very grateful that the city of Alton has honored her memory,” Perez said. “She was very, very committed to her community, very involved in her church, very involved in civic organizations and if she had food on her table everybody had food, she gave from her heart and that was the labor — her calling.”
According to Alton City Manager Jeff Underwood, the goal of the expansion is to accommodate a larger number of people.
In fact, the addition of this new section of the park has increased the park’s area from 10 acres to a total of 50 acres.
“We have two soccer fields, we have a fitness hub over here, numerous picnic areas on the west side of the park, there is a paved walking trail around the soccer fields that’s about a half a mile in length. That trail connects to the east side of the park,” Underwood said, adding that the expansion provides space for various outdoor activities including an upcoming splash pad.
He explained that between both sides of the park, there are several “natural trails” that weave between the two sides, totaling 2 miles of trails.
As of right now, the cost of the park expansion is about $1.7 million with half a million of the funding for the project provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife, another half a million from Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation and $1 million from the city.
Underwood said that by the end of construction, the project is estimated to have a total cost of $2 million.
“We saw an opportunity here to expand what we have and just again tie them together and just make it one big park to serve a larger part of the community,” Underwood said.
Plans for the park expansion began in 2017, he added, and it closed on May 8, 2022, to begin construction. This made Wednesday’s ribbon cutting a source of pride and celebration for city officials.
“There have been plenty of delays along the way so I’m very happy that we’re here today and opening the park to the public,” Underwood said.
