Additional parking may be in future for Blue Springs park

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: May 27, 2008

Opening day at Blue Springs park drew more than 2,000 people, a crowd so large that the gates had to be closed from time to time in the afternoon because there wasn’t enough parking.

Jackson County Parks and Recreation Director Chuck Hatcher said he hopes that problem will be a thing of the past by next summer.

He’s heard, but hasn’t officially received word on paper, that legislators approved partial funding of a grant to expand parking and make other improvements to the park.

The county had asked for a $200,000 Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program grant, but Hatcher has been told the county has been approved for $135,000, the balance trimmed away in a round of budget-cutting.

In the meantime, with Memorial Day the busiest holiday on the Blue Springs summer schedule, Hatcher said he was forced to shut the gate to motor traffic when parking reached capacity.

However, as a batch of folks left and freed up spaces, he let waiting customers drive on in and fill them.

“We had some who were angry about it, but we didn’t really have a choice-we had to keep it open for emergency traffic,” Hatcher said. “We hope the paperwork will be here (on the grant) by September or October, and we’ll have three years to complete it. But we know that parking is an issue and that’s something we’ll try to address as soon as we can.”

Some people got around the problem Monday by parking outside the park and walking in.

Those who parked on the side of Blue Springs Road, he said, were warned that they might be placing themselves in danger of having their vehicles towed or of being fined by law enforcement, but to Hatcher’s knowledge that didn’t happen.

He said the new parking area would be located in what is now a pine tree plantation, and that it would be designed in a way to cut as few trees as possible. “It won’t be clear-cut by any means, more like a thinning, and we’d be working through the state to make sure it’s done properly. We’re working on how to implement it.”

Other than limited parking, he said, there were few problems Monday.

“We had between five and 10 distressed swimmers that had to be rescued,” he said. “Nothing major, but we had 12 lifeguards available and a few of them were called upon.”

Litter may have been his biggest other frustration.

“I hope people will be more consistent in putting their trash into the bins rather than leaving it on the grounds, and that smokers would take their discarded cigarette butts with them when they leave.” Hatcher said. “The litter spoils the beauty of the park. We’ve placed extra bins in the park, so it should be sufficient.”

Park staff handled between 1,300 and 1,500 concessions transactions, he said, keeping workers very busy serving customers and later cleaning up after some of them.

About 300 more people came to the park this Memorial Day than on the same holiday last year, and Hatcher said that was an increase he anticipated with the continuing improvements that are being made to the recreation area. And there are more upgrades coming. The FRDAP grant will not only allow the county to add parking, it can also put in more pavilions and a multi-use walking trail.

Hatcher said the swelling crowds mean that, on the biggest day of the year, people had less elbow room at peak periods during the day than they’d have on a regular day.

“We have a 200-acre park, but we only use about five acres. On Monday, what tended to happen is that a party would sort of lose space as the day wore on and the crowd increased. We weren’t at maximum capacity as far as the crowd was concerned, but someday it may come to putting a capacity limit. It’s usually not a problem because on non-holiday Saturdays, we expect an average of 1,000 people and that’s well within what we can handle.”

Starting next Saturday, the park will be open from 11 a.m until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The park is closed on Mondays for maintenance. On July 4 and on Labor Day, the park will open at 10 a.m. instead of 11 a.m.