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Admission free Saturday to Forest Park, Marine Park pools

Forest Park Pool's dedication is 10 a.m. Saturday, and Marine Park Aquatics Center's follows at noon. Swimming begins promptly. Admission to both pools is free all day Saturday. Here's the Star-Telegram's print story in Thursday's paper.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

 

The download on Fort Worth Bike Sharing's first month

Fort Worth Bike Sharing celebrated its first month Wednesday. Here’s its download of key stats:

Memberships purchased: 24-hour, 1,585; 7-day, 3; 30-day, 9; annual, 280.

Trips: 3,550

Miles: 20,855

Most popular stations:

1. Trinity Park, Tilley Bridge

2. Trinity Park, West 7th Street and Stayton

3. 2597 West 7th Street, Montgomery Plaza

4. Intermodal Transportation Center, North

5. Magnolia and Lipscomb

6. Sundance Square downtown, South

7. Belknap and Taylor downtown

8. City Hall downtown

9. Sundance Square, North

10. Omni Hotel downtown

Busiest days: Saturday and Sunday

Summer plan: Add 4-6 stations, roll out promotion to encourage more hotel guests to use Bike Share, set up temporary station at Colonial golf tournament Saturday and Sunday, at Streams and Valleys bike corral near Log Cabin Village.

Kristen Camareno, Bike Sharing’s executive director, says the organization’s goal for the next few months is “education.”

“There’s a lot of questions about usage fees and how that works,” she said.

Simply put, some bike sharers – whether on an $8 day pass or $80 annual membership - haven’t understood that extra fees kick in after the first 30 minutes you’ve got the bike checked out. The fee is $1.50 for the second half hour, and $3 for every half hour after that.

So if you check the bike out at Trinity Park and take it down the trail for a tour, you’ll end up paying extra fees.

Fort Worth Bike Sharing has heard it from some riders who didn’t understand the rules until the fees hit their credit card, Camareno said.

“We’re still trying to re-iterate the fact that it’s bike sharing, not long term bike rental,” she said.

Bike Sharing is also on the lookout for new stations to add this summer to its initial 28, filling in gaps in the Fort Worth network.

“We’d really like to hit the southwest/west side of downtown a little bit better,” such as between Henderson Street and Lamar and Taylor, she said.

“We hope to add at least one in that area, maybe two this summer,” she said.

Another spot in the network, TCU, has only one station, at West Cantey Street and Rogers, and Bike Sharing wants to add more.

“I hope TCU embraces it,” she said. “We’d love to see a small network of stations around the campus. It’s needed, it’d be a great way for students to get around without a car and it helps alleviate the parking and transportation issues.”

Its GPS data from the bikes indicates TCU users are riding the bikes to the Near South Side, where the nearest station is at Park Place and Enderly, off of 8th Avenue in a cluster of restaurants, Camareno said.

For future locations, Bike Sharing also is paying attention to locations where it sees bikes locked up.

“People email me pictures all the time,” Camareno said. The Clear Fork Food Truck Park off of University Drive on the Trinity Trail is one frequent location, she said. “We’ve seen a couple at the Fort Worth Zoo, some at the Botanic Gardens.”

Bike Sharing in Fort Worth has taken off faster than expected, Camareno said. As expected, more users opted for day passes rather than annual memberships, even if they ended up being repeat users during the first month, a trend that plays out early on in other bike share cities, she said.

The popularity of the Trinity Park station near the Tilley Bridge has been surprising.

“I think people have been very pleased with how it has incorporated into the trail system,” she said.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth, United Riverside nonprofit, agree to settle $220,000 dispute

The city of Fort Worth and an affordable housing nonprofit, run as recently as last year by City Council member Kelly Allen Gray, have agreed to settle a 4-year-old, $220,000 dispute, with the nonprofit surrendering its remaining real estate, cash, and mineral rights.

The city would cover the $10,000 in estimated closing costs of transferring eight vacant lots – seven to the city, and one to a neighborhood using it for a community garden. The nonprofit, United Riverside Rebuilding Corp., would be allowed to remain open.

The organization, based in Riverside, had sought to stay in business, keep mineral rights, and have the city cover costs.

“It’s probably best for everybody,” Phyllis Allen, a United Riverside director and Gray’s sister, said, speaking for the nonprofit board.

The City Council was scheduled to vote on the agreement Tuesday, but the staff pulled it back because the documents didn’t have all of the signatures. The council is scheduled to vote June 4, said Jay Chapa, Fort Worth’s acting Financial Management Services director.

United Riverside has no remaining assets, no executive director, and no immediate plan, Allen said.

But “it does other things in the community other than build houses,”  Allen said. “We just want to be alive. We just don’t want to fold up our tent and slink away into the darkness, as if we had done some horrible thing. Because we hadn’t.”

Gray, who stepped down as executive director last Spring to run a successful bid for City Council, declined comment Tuesday.

Under the settlement, the city will receive five lots in the 2600 and 2700 blocks of La Salle Street in the Riverside area, one lot at 1209 E. Robert St., and a seventh at 2805 Ennis St. It will pay $1,091.52 – its remaining cash - to the city and convey an eighth lot it owns on Chenault Street to a neighborhood association.

The Tarrant Appraisal District values the seven lots being transferred to the city at a total $54,700 at market, and the Chenault lot at $3,850.

The nonprofit got its start with a grant in 2000. It built 25 houses and remodeled two others, investing $1.2 million and selling at below-market value to allow buyers to move in with equity, Gray, executive director from inception until she stepped down, has said.

The dispute hinged on two homes United Riverside built and sold. In May 2006, United Riverside, with Gray as director, accepted $287,000 in federal Housing and Urban Development money administered by the city's housing department.

Under the grant, the money was to be used as seed to construct six infill homes. United Riverside would build two, sell them and use the proceeds to repeat the process.

United Riverside built two homes and sold them. But the city said it found the buyer of one turned it into a rental, violating federal affordable housing rules, and the second buyer's income was too high. In 2008, after United Riverside sold the homes, the city, as is routine under the HUD process, sought documentation that the home buyers met requirements.

United Riverside maintained that it sent the documentation early on but that the originals were later destroyed by a flood in its offices. The city has said it never received the documents.

The city repaid $220,719.29 to the government. Of that, the city and HUD determined that $190,843 went to building the two homes, $12,544 was for a lot not built upon within the allowed time, and the remainder was for expenses the city said United Riverside couldn't document.

Allen and Gray have said the dispute unfairly blemished United Riverside’s record.

“Every single dime that was entrusted to the United Riverside Rebuilding Corp. was spent the way it was said it was going to be spent," she said in a February interview as negotiations between the city and United Riverside proceeded.

"We built homes, we remodeled houses, we provided social services, we brought families back into the community," she said then. “We built the best houses [under the affordable housing program] in the city. The houses are there."

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth council approves two tax abatements

The council this morning unanimously approved two tax abatements (Click here for the Star-Telegram's original print story).

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

June 3 possible for area water restrictions, Fort Worth official tells City Council

First-stage water restrictions could be coming by June 3, Fort Worth's water director, Frank Crumb, told City Council members this morning.

"It's been the fourth driest Spring on record," Crumb said. "We just haven't gotten all the runoff we need."

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth council swears in Mayor Price, seven members to new terms

Mayor Betsy Price and seven council members were sworn into new two-year terms Tuesday, thanking constituents, family, city staff and aides and promising to continue to confront the city’s tough budget issues and infrastructure needs.

The council also officially called a June 15 runoff for the District 5 seat, held by incumbent Frank Moss, who trailed challenger Gyna Bivens in the May 11 election. A third challenger, John Tunmire, secured enough votes to ensure neither Bivens nor Moss won the required majority.

Price, who backed all incumbents in their re-election bids, patted Moss on the back after presenting the other council members with certificates of election. Councilman Joel Burns congratulated his fellow council members on their wins “and/or pending win.”

Price and four council members ran unopposed and had already been declared by the council to be the winners of their seats. Moss, District 2 Councilman Sal Espino, District 4 Councilman Danny Scarth, and District 8 Council member Kelly Allen Gray had opponents.

Price, who won her second term, touted the council’s votes on the city’s budget and underfunded pension, encouragement of public-private partnerships such as the one with a Fort Worth foundation that will re-open the historic Forest Park Pool this weekend, increased public engagement, falling crime and a public safety response that “continues to improve.”

“We ran on the principles of fiscal responsibility and protecting our taxpayers, to get government out of the way, and let business thrive,” Price said. “I believe we’ve done that.”

Espino, who defeated challenger and former Councilman Jim Lane in the North Side District 2, said his race was a “grueling, hard-fought campaign, and we’re going to move forward in our city. So much more to do.”

“I’m truly humbled by the vote of confidence,” said Espino, who thanked his wife, Elizabeth, who was in attendance and wearing yellow, “the color of joy, of happiness.”

Scarth, who faced political newcomer Paul Gardner in the East/far North District 4, acknowledged the challenge of running in a redrawn district that took in significantly more of the far North. Gardner, who lives in the far North, won more than 40 percent of the vote.

“It’s been a little different running in these new districts; folks don’t always know what to expect from us,” Scarth said.

Gray, who defeated former Council member Kathleen Hicks in a hot race, had asked constituents to give her a shot at showing what she could do with a full term. Gray won a runoff last year to fill the remainder of Hicks’ term, after Hicks stepped down to run for Congress.

“We’ve had three elections in District 8” in the last year, said Gray, who Mayor Pro Tem W.B. “Zim” Zimmerman noted decided to hang pictures in her office Monday. “We officially have a two-year term, and it feels good to say we’re all going forward together.”

Council members who ran unopposed thanked constituents for the support.

Councilman Jungus Jordan, who won another term in his Southwest District 6, joked that “in District 6, if you run unopposed, it’s going to be a close election.”

Councilman Dennis Shingleton, who won another term representing the West Side District 7 that was redrawn to include much of the far North, choked up in thanking his wife and council aide, and said he was looking forward to working on upcoming city charter revisions, the 2014 bond package, and recreation and transportation needs.

Zimmerman, who won another term representing the West Side District 3, said “this is a job that is not without challenge. And there’s been challenge after challenge after challenge.”

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth gets ready to open Marine Park Pool, city's first all-new pool since 1960

Fort Worth's getting ready to open two pools Saturday - the brand new Marine Park Pool on the North Side and the repaired, historic Forest Park Pool (updated pictures) on the Near South Side.

The Marine Park dedication will be noon Saturday, following the 10 a.m. Forest Park dedication. It'll be Fort Worth's first all-new pool since 1960, when the city opened the Kellis and Hillside pools. Click here for more info.

Crews were working on both pools Monday. Here are some pictures from the Marine Park pool, which follows the city's master plan for new aquatic centers and includes a zero beach, 25-yard lap pool, water slide, interactive kids play area with water cannons, water lounge deck with lounges, shaded picnic areas, and Spanish-style bathhouse.

The city, as part of the project, also made other improvements to Marine Park, including a 40 x 14 picnic shelter on the site of the demolished, old pool; a memorial to the late neighborhood leader Betty Ward; 6,480-square-foot skate park; repaired shelter; 14 benches; 20 picnic tables; and new and replaced sidewalks. 

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest Park Pool sneak peek; fundraiser Thursday night, dedication Saturday

Got a chance to tour Fort Worth's repaired Forest Park Pool this afternoon. Crews are putting the finishing touches on it, ahead of a 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. "sneak peek" and fundraiser Thursday.

The fundraiser is to raise money for swim lesson scholarships at Forest Park and the city's new North Side Marine Park Pool (pictures from a similiar sneak peek today), and for future capital needs at Forest Park.

Admission to the fundraiser party is $25 (no swimming Thursday night, just food, beverage, music, and, city officials say, some animals from the adjacent Fort Worth Zoo). Here are some pix from today's stop at Forest Park, where, thanks in large part to a grant from the Radler Foundation, the city has replaced the old pool liner, extended the deck and added shaded picnic areas, replaced the old slide, and replaced a diving board.

The city will dedicate the pool 10 a.m. Saturday, and swimming will begin promptly at that point.

Click here for more information on the fundraiser, pool admission fees, swimming lessons, and pool rentals.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fort Worth council members worry more conflicts will arise in mixed-use zoning between schools and alcohol sales

City Council members said they believe the potential conflict in mixed-use zoning between schools and businesses that want to sell alcohol will increase with the city’s growth. The City Council on Tuesday night put off until June 4 a council vote on an ordinance change that would remove the 300-foot buffer in mixed-use zoning between businesses that want to sell alcohol and schools and public hospitals.

The Fort Worth school district said Monday it agreed with the change for the Central Business District, but wants to retain case-by-case review in other mixed-use areas. Here's today's print story on the issue in the Star-Telegram.

“We need to continue to work with (school districts) on where they site schools, because this is going to be more of an issue,” Councilman Sal Espino said.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura

Fort Worth on track for summer completion of Forest Park "Road Diet"

The city is on track to start the controversial Forest Park Boulevard “Road Diet” restriping project in June or July, with completion done by August, Fort Worth’s transportation and public works director, Doug Wiersig, told council members Tuesday.

The project would turn Forest Park between West Rosedale Street and Park Hill Drive on the Near South Side into one traffic lane in both directions, plus a two-way center turn lane, and bike lanes on both sides. Currently, the street is two lanes in both directions.

The Berkeley and Mistletoe Heights neighborhood associations sought the road diet to reduce speeds and traffic accidents. Councilman Jungus Jordan, whose district includes major roadways in southwest Fort Worth that make Forest Park part of a diagonal arterial, has sought to delay the Forest Park project until the Chisholm Trail is complete in 2014.

The city will re-evaluate the restriping three months after it’s done to ensure it’s working, Wiersig said.

Mayor Betsy Price noted the project will coincide with the summer’s re-opening of the Forest Park Pool., which will generate pedestrian traffic on the boulevard.

“This is a striping project,” she said. “If it doesn’t work in three months, it can be re-evaluated. I think this’ll go a long way with helping the issues on Forest Park.”

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Twitter: @JScottNishimura