BREC in final stages of work on parks, moving to trails next

Published Oct 19, 2012 at 9:00 am (Updated Oct 19, 2012)

The $8 million BREC borrowed in August to provide adequate cash flow through the end of the year is not related to the $13 million in bonds that it has been approved to borrow for park improvements and maintenance, says BREC assistant superintendent Ted Jack. "It's the last bit of money we're borrowing on the Imagine Your Parks program," he says. The state Bond Commission gave final approval of the park and recreation department's $13 million bond plan on Thursday. The Imagine Your Parks program, which transforms neighborhood parks into community parks, initially bonded $45 million in 2005, Jack says. Since then, nine parks have been upgraded or have improvements under way: Perkins, Forest, City, Greenwood, Howell, Independence, Highland, as well as a new park in both Central and Zachary. "What we're trying to do is, no matter where you are in the parish, you're pretty close to one of these parks," Jack says. The Capital Area Pathways Project, which when completed will be a 7.4-mile loop, is also part of Imagine Your Parks. Jack says BREC hopes to have a groundbreaking in early December on the concrete trail at its first phase, a 2.2-mile section that runs from the Mall of Louisiana to Picardy Bridge, near Dick's Sporting Goods, and then from the bridge to Siegen Lane. In August the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation contributed $1 million to the trail system. Jack says it the system could be named the Medical Loop, as trails would eventually connect to Essen Lane, the Perkins park, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, LSU Rural Life Museum and Perkins Rowe. —Adam Pearson