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The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is preparing to roll out preliminary plans for its new San Saba River Nature Park and is seeking feedback from the local community.

LCRA will hold an open house on Saturday, Oct. 10th, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the new park’s grounds along State Highway 190 (across from Mill Pond Park) to present a conceptual design of the park and take public questions and comments.

Initial plans call for the park to have a variety of amenities, including a hike and bike trail around and through the park, swimming and fishing areas, an archeological interpretive area, wildlife viewing sites, primitive camping, parking, and restroom facilities.

At the open house, LCRA staff will make brief presentations at 9:15 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., after which visitors will be able to visit with staff informally and look at the design. LCRA staff also will be available to show visitors around the property in small groups. Coffee and donuts will be served.

If it rains, the open house will be moved to the pavilion at Mill Pond Park across the highway.

LCRA acquired three contiguous tracts, totaling almost 39 acres, east of downtown San Saba last winter as part of its effort to complete the Colorado River Trail by having an LCRA park in each of its 10 statutory counties. San Saba and Blanco counties are the last of the 10 counties to get LCRA parks.

The new park property includes frontage on the San Saba River and Mill Creek and a large pecan orchard with some century-old trees. The land is adjacent to two existing city parks – Mill Pond Park to the south and Risien Park to the east. When combined, the three parks will account for about 120 acres of parkland in the city.

LCRA is partnering with the City of San Saba on the new park. LCRA will develop it and the city will operate and maintain it.

The project is tentatively scheduled to be included in LCRA’s next fiscal year budget, which begins July 1, 2010.

The project would start sometime after that and take roughly 18 months to complete.

“We are excited about the San Saba River Nature Park, the amenities that it will provide, and the fact that it will be connected to the excellent existing city parks,” said Fran Irwin, LCRA manager of community development and parks. “We want to share our initial ideas for the park with the community and we want to get the community’s feedback on those ideas. We also will continue to keep the community informed of the park’s progress.”