Pasco's newest park under construction

Sometimes a project for a nature preserve and park appeared to need a wing and a prayer to become a reality.

After nearly six years, Pasco County Parks and Recreation Department officials and construction crews at last are flying high as an eagle as Eagle Point Park races toward a late spring opening.

The newest county park is taking shape at the bend in the road where Trouble Creek Road merges with Strauber Memorial Highway.

The facility owes its name to a nearby nest of bald eagles that frequent the area along the coast, along with many other migratory birds.

Most of the 600 acres will remain a refuge for wildlife, instead of swanky mansions as developers once envisioned.

Only 15 acres are being developed as a low-impact nature park, Michael Gollasch, Pasco parks and recreation supervisor, explained.

A somewhat bemused double-crested cormorant perched along the water, watching workers develop the kayak launch and other amenities.

Cormorant love to dive for fish in the Gulf and fresh water ponds, Ken Tracey, president of the West Pasco Audubon Society, explained.

"Their numbers swell here in the winter as thousands migrate from the north," Tracey recounted. Audubon's local bird count on Jan. 2 logged 3,000 of them in the West Pasco area. Several hundred pairs stay here to nest in the summer.

"The park property will remain a very important refuge for numerous bird species throughout the seasons," Tracey continued. "A very good example is a recent report of 100,000-plus American robins roosting in the park's mangroves."

So park visitors soon will be able to take in the wildlife show put on by nature.

Plans call for 1.5 miles of trails, two shelters, a fishing pier, canoe and kayak launch, a playground and a fitness trail, Gollasch reports.

Compass Construction is building the facilities for $494,373.00, the lowest of 15 bids the county received. Doug Oliver, site supervisor for the Cape Coral-based contracting firm, expects his crews should wrap up work in March.

Gollasch says no date has been picked to open Eagle Point Park, since the county must make its preparations after construction crews depart.

In addition, staffing for the park remains a bit of a problem because of budget cutbacks the county has been forced to make during the recession. Volunteers probably will be asked to pitch in, Gollasch said.

The park preserve first became a gleam in the eye of Commissioner Ann Hildebrand in January 2004. Her spotting of an eagle flying over the land helped inspire its naming.

But it took more than two years to negotiate a deal to buy the land from the private owners of the Dartmouth Property. The developable parcels originally had been intended for seven mansions costing $750,000 and up. Most of the site is salt marshes and coastal wetlands.

"This parcel is one of the last pieces of available coastal property in Pasco County," Parks and Recreation Director Frederick "Rick" Buckman wrote in an April 2006 memo to county commissioners.

"We recognize the importance of protecting and restoring this parcel of land from imminent private development," Buckman noted in the memo.

County officials also needed time to arrange part of the financing through state aid to help pay the $3.19 million price tag.

The Florida Communities Trust came through with a large share of the money to develop Eagle Point. The trust provides money to buy land for community parks, open spaces and greenways.

A few years after the land was bought, Buckman helped arrange for a matching grant to pay about half of the construction costs.

"I'm really, really ecstatic about that," Hildebrand commented Thursday about public ownership of the park land. Wildlife abounds on the property, including five eagle's nests, she noted.