Happy 4th of July

Better trail access and revamped parking lots are part of the East Lawther Trail improvement project.

AllthreephasesoftheEast LawtherTrailprojectwillinclude parking lot improvements, new parking lots and trail entry marker additions. The City of Dallas, from the previousbondprogram,allocated $1.8millionforphaseoneofthe trail and parking reconstruction, for the area from Mockingbird Point to the Bath House Cultural Center. The total estimated cost for this phase is $3.8 million. The plan is to rebuild the existing trail, and revamp parts that are unused and broken up (the stretch up Boy Scout Hill, for example) rather than building a new trail along the shoreline (as the city did along the west side of the lake). Also included in phase one is a pedestrian overpass from Mockingbird Bridge to Boy Scout Hill, and native grassland designation for certain areas.

Phasetwowillencompassthe area from the Bath House to Lake Highlands Drive. This phase includes improvements to the Big Thicket area the building and playground will remain,butplaygroundimprovements,trailaccessandnewpicnic stations are in store. Phase two costs are estimated at $1.5 million, and as yet no money is allocated for it.

Phasethreefocusesonthearea from Lake Highlands Drive to Emerald Isle, and includes a planned sailing club parking zone near the Corinthian Sailing Club, and boat ramp improvements. The estimated cost for phase three is $1.9. $7.2 million more is neededinordertomakeallthree phaseshappen.Despiteneeding much more money, the city has moved ahead with the design, Winters says.

2. STONE TABLES

Builtaround1930,theStone Tables — accompanied by a bridge over a nonexistent pond, a bathroom building and a pavilion — are some oftheoldeststructuresatWhite RockLake.Thetables,whichsit along East Lawther Drive and can be seen from Buckner, serve as a popular gathering area, even though they are run-down and the old lily pond is long dried up. A $1 million restoration of this area would include refurbishing the historic structures and replenishing the lily pond. To date, no funds have been allocated for this project.

3.

The fishing piers at White Rock Lake are old — so old, in fact, that they need to be rebuilt from scratch, says Willis Winters, assistant director of Dallas Park and Recreation. There are eight piers, which will cost $200,000 each to repair. That’s $1.6 million for the entire project. No money is yet allocated for this.

Dreyfuss Point

Last December the Park Department and the White Rock Lake Conservancy shared with neighborhood groups this preliminary rendering representing a new Dreyfuss Club.

The burning of the Dreyfuss Club in 2006 was a catalyst for forming the White Rock Lake Conservancy, a group that aims to raise funds for lake improvement projects. Right after the fire, City Councilman Sheffield Kadane said it concerned him that no funds were available to replace a building as significant to our neighborhood as the Dreyfuss Club. So Kadane, along with former City Councilman Gary Griffith and others, started organizing. The group has been working with a City of Dallas architect over the past several months on a design for the new Dreyfuss building, which will occupy about the same space as the former club, and may be a little bigger. “Our building and grounds committee meets and talks with the city and its architect at least quarterly,” Griffith says. “We wouldn’t start fundraising until a final design is determined and our board formally votes to engage in the project.” The cost of rebuilding the club is estimated at $3 million, and the city has not allocated any money for the project.