225 Feet Of Panther Island Canal Ready For Riverwalking

Yesterday, the day known as Sunday, Steve A, currently watching Texas from a luxurious vantage point in Ocean Shores, Washington, posted a comment to a blog post which was posted earlier on that yesterday sunny Sunday.

Steve A's comment...

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "Kay Granger Says Fort Worth's Boondoggle Will Get Buckets Of Federal Funding...":

Can we expect a story of the extra cash approved to Oliver ($300K) and Granger's kid ($60K) before too long? It's rare to see the Startlegram scoop Durango! What's more, are you planning to do one or more stories on the Panther Island Central City Flood Project? Its Executive Director is one JD Granger. As far as I can tell, their main accomplishment to date has been to build 225 feet of sidewalk along a canal. There's a story at https://fwtx.com/news/progress-report/ - and even that sidewalk appears to be three years behind schedule if you look at the "related" blurb about JD from the same publication. Apparently, JD's sidewalk is like a local version of the Trump border wall.

Inquiring minds want to know!

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Well...

The Panther Island Looks to Unveil First Part of River Walk Before End of Year article, to which Steve A pointed us, has some interesting elements. 

The first paragraph...

The Panther Island project has been going on for well over a decade now, and in that time frame, has also become the brunt of both praise and critique from those anxiously awaiting the promised San Antonio-style riverwalk and surrounding developments illustrated in those fancy renderings. In April, what’s considered the first vertical progress on the project finally opened to traffic — the White Settlement Bridge, one of three V-pier bridges offering connectivity to the 800-acre district.

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Well over a decade? The Boondoggle has been boondoggling along since this century began. Has anyone heard any of this praise from people anxiously awaiting a promised San Antonio-style riverwalk? The simple little bridges which look like freeway overpasses are considered the first vertical progress?

Continuing on...

But just along North Main Street, behind chain-link fences in the shadow of the five-story Encore Panther Island apartment complex, the fun part of the project — the part everyone’s been waiting for — remains hidden from the public eye.

Well, a 225-foot-long portion of it anyway. 

Nestled right in the center of Encore Panther Island is the first part of the Panther Island Riverwalk, now filled with water as it waits to join the rest of what will be about 1.75 miles of canal running along the district.

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Why isn't this Encore apartment complex considered vertical progress? Everyone has been waiting for the fun part of this project? With that fun part supposedly being the Panther Island Riverwalk? 225 feet of the 1.75 mile canal has now been filled with water, and is awaiting being enjoyed? Yeah, that illustrative photo of this section of Riverwalk looks real enjoyable.

Continuing on...

But aside from just giving locals something fun to enjoy, those spearheading the project have long touted the canal’s functional purpose — to serve as the main stormwater arterials for the City of Fort Worth and allow for the removal of outdated levees, replacing them with better flood protection via the canal.

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Oh, this canal will serve as stormwater arterials, thus allowing the removal of levees which are supposedly outdated, but which have prevented flooding for well over a half century, whilst other areas of Fort Worth and Tarrant County are in dire need of better flood protection. 

Looking at that photo of this short section of canal, it is a bit difficult to see how this is going to handle the Trinity River when it goes into flood mode.

Continuing on with a bizarre quote from that gift which just keeps on giving, J.D. Granger...

“Locals will never know it,” JD Granger, executive director of Panther Island Central City Flood Project, says. “Everyone’s walking down with a margarita — might fall in because you’re drunk — [and] they just think it’s pretty. But actually, it serves a very important purpose.”

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Local will never know the little canal serves a very important purpose? Really? For most of this century locals have been hearing about a flood diversion channel, whilst seeing three little bridges being slowly built over dry land. So, how and why is it that J.D. thinks the locals will never know what the canal is for while they are drunkenly walking the riverwalk with a margarita in hand?

J.D. Granger has a long history of embarrassing himself. Way back in June of 2014 we blogged about one of the weirdest J.D. Granger embarrassments in This Morning I Learned J.D. Granger Is Promoting Little Kids Cheering For Beer & Going Nuts For Runner's Butts.

Continuing on...

The Panther Island project hasn’t gone on without opposition, however, as many remain critical over its hefty price tag (it’s part of the $1.16 billion Central City Flood Project, of which $29 million for utility work is coming from the public), and simply the fact that everything’s taking so long.

To that, Granger has two responses: Regarding the cost, funding for the Panther Island Riverwalk is coming from investors and developers who are paying the Tarrant Regional Water District the amount they would essentially pay to mitigate the stormwater runoff they would create. On the amount of time it’s taken to see things go vertical, Granger cites, in part, the need to clean up the “environmental hot mess” that the formerly industrial property used to be, previously filled with hazardous chemicals like lead and ammonia. 

“We were having to buy the property, move the property, demo the property, do the environmental cleanup — all of that had to take place before the bridges could even start,” Granger says, adding that the amount of hazardous materials removed totaled to about 330,000 tons.

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According to Granger, funding is coming from investors and developers? If that is the case why is this project constantly in slow motion construction mode whilst awaiting federal funding courtesy of J.D.'s mother's budget finagling, which is what Kay Granger has long been expected to deliver, thanks to her son being given a high paying job for which he had zero qualifications.

Before the bridges could start J.D. says they had to buy, move and demo property? And that added up to 330,000 tons of hazardous material? Anyone remember seeing all those tons being moved? Where did they move to?

And one can not help but wonder how many margaritas J.D. Granger had consumed prior to being interviewed for this article...

Hank Frank Visits Great Grandma Shirley For First Time

Incoming to my phone this Sunday afternoon, sent by my Favorite Nephew Joey and Hank Frank.

Hank Frank had visited his Great Grandpa Jack, previously, but never his Great Grandma Shirley, til today.

Hank Frank's dad, Joey, married his mother, Monique, after Great Grandpa Jack had moved to his final resting place.

At some point after that I was in Arizona, with mom, and we called Joey. I don't remember if this was before or after Joey got married. What I do remember was mom asking Joey a couple times when he was gonna come for a visit.

Joey and I had talked a time or two of timing a visit of his to Arizona with a time when I would be there. That would have been fun. But, it never happened.

Above Hank Frank is getting a closer look at the flowers which are currently sitting on mom and dad's headstone. I always thought these were called tombstones, but a couple days ago Betty Jo Bouvier referred to mom and dad's tombstone as a headstone. To Hank Frank's left are his Great Great Grandma and Grandpa's headstones.

Upon first seeing the above photo of Hank Frank pointing to a Slotemaker headstone other than his Great or Great Great Grandparental Units, I did not understand.

And then I did.

Hank Frank is pointing to the name on the headstone because it is the same name as his.

Henry Slotemaker.

Known as Uncle Hank. Younger brother of my dad's dad, Cornelius. Uncle Hank was married to Aunt Fanny. When I was Hank Frank's age, and older, Hank and Fanny lived on the Slotemaker Farm on Slotemaker Road, a couple miles east of Lynden.

Hank and Fanny lived there til they sold the farm and built a new house on Birch Bay Lynden Road, where Uncle Hank lived til he died, and Aunt Fanny lived til she was murdered.

Uncle Hank took it upon himself to write a detailed family history, going all the way back to Holland. If it weren't for Uncle Hank I would not know my family history in the great detail I know it, including how our family ended up in Lynden.

Way back in 2002 I webpaged Uncle Hank's family history which he called The Slotemaker Story. Til today I had not looked at this for a long long long time.

To make the website I used a now long outdated format known as frames. I also made several Shockwave animations which I now see are no longer supported.

But, The Slotemaker Story is still totally readable, with the frames still working. However, I suspect this would not work on a smart phone, only an old fashioned big computer screen. And maybe a tablet.

Kay Granger Says Fort Worth's Boondoggle Will Get Buckets Of Federal Funding In 2022

Yesterday Fort Worth had a celebratory ceremony to celebrate the opening to traffic of the bridge you see in the photo above. Local propagandists have long propagandized that this bridge and its two siblings were going to be iconic signature bridges.

No. I am not making that up.

Construction of these three simple little bridges began way back in 2014. Two of the three are now, in 2021, completed.  Sort of.

This Sunday morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about that which has become America's Biggest & Most Embarrassing Boondoggle. This Fort Worth’s Panther Island will get federal funding in 2022, US Rep. Kay Granger says article contains some of the usual propaganda gems.

Along with failing to make mention of one big piece of reality. With that reality being that federal funding has not been forthcoming for Fort Worth's poorly planned, ineptly implemented public works project because of the requirement that a feasibility study is required before federal funding can be considered.

We blogged about the feasibility study problem just a couple months ago in Fort Worth Opens One Of Its Bridges To Nowhere Over Dry Land.

Before that we blogged about the feasibility study problem in August of 2020 in Panther Island Board Wants No Feasibility Study Of Fort Worth's Embarrassing Boondoggle.

And even way further back in March of 2010 in CONFLUENCE: A River & A Creek Runs Through Tarrant County Losing Dollars & Lives reference is made to the feasibility study issue way back in February of 2001, in the following paragraph from that blog post...

A feasibility study for the watershed had been initiated by the US Army Corps of Engineers in February 2001. In a letter to Congresswoman Kay Granger in November 2009, Col. Richard Muraski of the Corps stated that, "Due to a variety of issues, including a lack of consistent funding, higher priority work and technical shortcomings, completion of the study has taken longer than normal." He went on to state that the Corp recognized the "history of destructive flooding" in the area and that approximately $100,000 would be provided to "continue the studies of the Big Fossil Creek watershed."

The flood prone watershed referred to in the above paragraph is not the area focused on by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century. Kay Granger has shown ZERO real concern for the area of her congressional district which has actually had, and continues to have, deadly destructive flooding.

The first three paragraphs of this latest Star-Telegram article about the Boondoggle...

The Panther Island project will see enough federal money in the 2022 funding cycle to begin digging the channel under the already-built bridges, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger said Saturday.

Granger, R-Fort Worth, said it’s not clear how much funding will come through for the project, but she’s confident it will be enough to begin cutting the 1.5-mile channel.

“It comes in different buckets, so there may be some in this one and then some in the next one,” Granger said. “I think it will be funded for everything they can spend in the next cycle.”

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Enough funding to begin digging in 2022? And the funding will come in different buckets? Like has already been said, there is to be no federal funding without a feasibility study. Or has that requirement been dropped?

Granger made these funding comments at yesterday's ribbon cutting grand opening of the North Main Street bridge.

And then we have the following two paragraphs...

But for now, all three bridges span dry land. Officials, including Granger, have long said that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges first and then cut the channel that will connect the ends of a U-shaped bend in the Trinity River. The area known as Panther Island is not actually an island until water begins flowing through the channel.

“We didn’t have to do the water this way, but it was the smart way, it could be done faster and cheaper,” Granger said.

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The smart way? We didn't have to do the water this way? Officials, including Granger, have long said it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges first and then cut the channel?

How many times has it been repeated that there was no logical option other than to build the bridges over dry land. It would have been idiotic to dig a ditch first, fill it with water, and then build the bridges. Without the bridges that ditch would be a serious obstacle to traffic.

Why do these supposed "officials" repeat this nonsense over  and over again?

Easier to build the bridges first? It has taken over 7 years to easily build these bridges.

Way longer than it took to build the Golden Gate bridge.

To illustrate how idiotic this cheaper and easier to build the bridges over dry land nonsense is, it would be like way back in the 1930s there was no water in San Francisco Bay. And the city decided to build a suspension bridge over dry land to connect to Marin County, and then fill the land under the bridge with water to create a bay. With the local officials repeating over and over and over again that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridge over dry land, as if there was any other logical option.

As has also been said over and over again, if the reality of this Fort Worth project was is as touted, that is, as a vitally needed flood control economic development scheme, why has this project limped along for most of this century?

Waiting for the rest of America to pay for it.

When Fort Worth voters have not voted to support this project by approving any sort of funding bond issue. Does Kay Granger actually believe that when she tries to finagle federal funding for her son's Boondoggle that other Representatives won't raise objections to funding the Fort Worth Boondoggle?

All you have to do is look at that photo of the newly opened bridge to see a visual metaphor for the quality of the Trinity River Vision. If any of the rest of the vision becomes anything someone can see do you think the quality will be of the same level as these three imaginary iconic signature bridges? 

Or worse...

Mom & Dad Finally Together Again In Lynden Washington

Yesterday, July 15, 2021, my mom and dad were reunited in Lynden, Washington, after being separated for almost four years.

This reunification was originally planned to take place last summer, but COVID intervened. 

And then this summer it was also thought the reunification would take place, with all my mom and dad's children helping with the reunification. 

But, again, COVID, and other complications intervened.

Last night Brother Jake sent my phone a couple photos taken yesterday, including the one you see above. This morning more photos arrived via email, sent by my Favorite Nephew Jason. We will get to Jason's photos and message below, but first Brother Jake's phone text message about mom's accident on the way north to Lynden...

By the way. Your mother was involved in a motor vehicle accident on route to her burial today. We were rear ended while waiting at a stop light on the Guide Meridian. Luckily mom was secured in the back seat. Miss Vicky, Loretta's Crown Victoria 4 door sedan, built like a tank, was not damaged. The elder lady who hit us had no driver's license, or insurance. She was sooooo apologetic...

Below, that would be Spencer Jack, Jason, Spencer's Grandpa Jake and Aunt Judy, awaiting the arrival of mom.

Email from Jason this morning....

FUD-

I was just thinking about today's happenings.

I believe we had 7 generations of blood relatives within just a few feet of one another.

Cornelis & Aagje

John & Tillie

Cornelius & Sylvia

Jack & Shirley

Brother John (Jake)

Myself (FNJ)

Spencer Jack Slotemaker

I wish you were there today.   Give me a call tomorrow, if you want, and I can offer you a more detailed version of how it all played out.  Judy was super helpful.  Ironically, she and I had lunch together twice this week. 

One other thought that just came to mind--- I often think of how your Mom's obit was written.  I supplied some basic outline and details, and your sister Michele added a few great lines...... one that I thought of today is "She took her role as homemaker seriously, and served home-cooked meals every night."   Having home cooked meals every night must have been like living in luxury.

Judy today talked about how much your mother was a good cook.

Hope all is well a couple thousand miles apart.

FNJ

Aunt Judy lives in Lynden.  Aunt Judy became our aunt when dad's brother, Mel, married her, way back in the 1960s.

Mom's reputation as a good cook comes up often. As recently as a few days ago when I talked to Miss Beth, friend of our family going back over half a century, Beth made mention of mom's cooking.

In the next photo we see mom has now arrived, patiently waiting to be installed in her final resting place.

And just like what happened with dad, it was mom and dad's eldest grandson, Jason, who put mom in her final location.

I suppose it comes as no surprise that I am feeling a bit melancholy this morning.

My new bike arrived yesterday.

Rain, this morning, is postponing my first test ride on the new bike.

Don't Miss Saturday's Fort Worth Ribbon Cutting Bridge Ceremony

Saw that which you see above, this Thursday morning, on Twitter, brought to us by the good people at Panther Island - Central City.

Way back in 2014 there was a TNT exploding ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of three simple little bridges over dry land, destined, it was hoped, one day to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

These bridges are part of what is known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or, more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And now, in 2021, seven years after 2014, one of those bridges is going to have itself a ribbon-cutting ceremony this coming Saturday, as in July 17, at 9 in the morning.

It is not known if any TNT will be exploding, but the Fort Worth Herd (that's about a dozen longhorns who live in the Fort Worth Stockyards) will be in attendance, entertained by a Mariachi Real de Alvarez & Fort Worth Ballet Folklorico.

We assume one of the entertainments is a mariachi band whilst the other are some sort of Mexico themed ballet dancers.

Is it normal for a big city to have a ceremony like this for the completion of a little bridge which took seven years to build? We think not. 

America's Biggest Boondoggle has been panhandling for years trying to extract money from the more prosperous parts of America to fund Fort Worth's flood control economic development scheme, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century.

How much money have America's Biggest Boondogglers wasted on things like bridge ribbon-cutting ceremonies, propaganda signage, concerts, river floats, fireworks, design mistakes, roundabout artwork and other money wasting items, whilst asking America for more money?

And why is Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., still being paid well over $200K a year, for year after year after year, as this poorly planned, ineptly implemented, public works project the public has never voted for, limps along, with little to show for the effort and money spent, except for things like three simple little bridges which look like freeway overpasses?

It's a mind boggling boondoggle...

America's Fittest & Least Fit Cities From Arlington To Fort Worth

This morning, whilst perusing the various online news sources I peruse every morning, I came upon an article about America's Fittest Cities. That article had a link to the source study which determined America's Fittest Cities, listing 100 American towns, from Fittest to Least Fit.

Arlington apparently is the Fittest City in America. No, not the Arlington in Texas. Or the one in Washington. The Fittest Arlington is the one in Virginia.

Seattle, in my old home state of Washington, is the 3rd Fittest City in America. 

Are there any towns in the state I am currently in, Texas, which are among the most fit? Well, Austin comes in at #19. I have seen Austin described as the Seattle of Texas, a liberal, well educated, lively town with a renowned music scene. And plenty of parks and trails.

Are there any other towns in Texas in the Top 60 Most Fit? Well, Plano, that's a town north of Dallas in the D/FW Metroplex, comes in at #45, followed by Laredo, Texas at #47, with Houston coming in #60.

That is the list of the Top 60 Most Fit American City below, and below that we come to the Bottom 40 Least Fit American Cities. Let's see if any Texas towns found their way to the bottom of this listing of fit cities.

Well, what a surprise, Dallas follows #60, Houston, in the #61 spot, leading the list of the 40 Least Fit American Cities.

El Paso is #62. Is Texas going to dominate the least fit cities?

No, Chandler, Arizona follows El Paso at #63, followed by Scottsdale, Arizona at #64. One of my sisters lives in Chandler, and my one and only brother lives in Scottsdale. I have spent time in both towns and have not seen the level of un-fitness I regularly see in Texas.

It looks like the Phoenix metro zone is actually not too fit, what with Mesa coming in at #68 followed by Phoenix itself at #70. After Phoenix only one other Arizona town shows up, that being Gilbert at #84. Gilbert is in the Phoenix metro zone, a town due east of Chandler.

However, Texas appears to dominate the lower 40 as we go down the list. With Dallas suburb, Garland at #75. Lubbock at #77.  Another Dallas suburb, Irving, at #82. San Antonio at #85. Arlington at #89. With Fort Worth being the least Fit Texas City at #90.

It is Oklahoma with the honor of having the two Least Fit American Cities, with Tulsa at #99 and Oklahoma City taking last place at #100.

It does not shock me too much that a scientific study of the fitness issue would find Fort Worth un-fit. The town is a bit lacking in a lot of amenities one expects to find in most American towns. Such as streets with sidewalks, parks with modern facilities, multiple public swimming pools. That sort of thing.

I think I have mentioned previously my experience way back in February of 2004. It had been several years, well, two, since I had been back to Washington. I was living in Fort Worth then.

Landing at Sea-Tac, before reaching my final destination, I was brought to downtown Seattle, to a gallery in Pioneer Square. Exchanging pleasantries with the gallery owner it was mentioned that I had just arrived from Texas. 

The gallery owner asked how long I had been away from Washington. A couple years I replied. Then the gallery owner asked me if anything seemed different, or some such question, but whatever the precise question was I precisely remember my reply.

"The people all look like they have had the air let out of them." I told the gallery owner.

I was so used to seeing overly bloated Texans that it was like being on a different planet, seeing so many un-bloated people out and about. 

I am getting a new bike today, so that I can continue my quest to contribute to the Fitness of Texas...

Google Is Tracking Where I Go And How I Got There

For some reason Google monitors my activity of the where I have been sort during the month, and then sends me a report of such via email.

The report includes photos of various locations I have been during the month.

For instance in June I found myself up north in Oklahoma, stopping at the Comanche Red River Casino Resort for a restroom break.

The activity email from Google included a photo of the exterior of that Comanche casino.

Google also tells me how far I walked, biked and drove during the month.

For June Google thinks I only walked two miles, biked 63 and drove 296.

I am fairly certain I walked more than two miles and biked more than 63. I don't know about the number of miles driven. 296 seems like it might be fairly accurate.

As for the biking miles, whatever the actual total was in June, in July it should be fewer miles. Due to my bike being in total malfunction mode.

It is the bike's lower bracket crankset (I think that is what it is called) which has failed. This part of the bike has been problematic for quite some time.  Previously loosening that ring you see at the end of a lot of threads and squirting in some lubricant alleviated the problem.

For awhile.

But last month the crank started getting real cranky. Noisy, skipping. My attempt to squirt in some lubricant totally broke this part of the bike, when I loosened the ring. That part with all the threads should not have come out like that. The round ring thing is supposed to tighten on those threads. Instead the part with all the threads came loose from whatever it was attached to inside the crank shaft.

This bike has had other issues which have long had me wary of it. Number one of those issues is twice the bike seat failed. As in suddenly broke off due to an attaching bolt breaking.

After the second incident the bike manufacturer, Schwinn, replaced the whole bike seat, post and seat, and since then there has been no more failing of that component.

But I still did not trust it not to fail again. I had been lucky both of the failure incidents that the failure happened just as I began to pedal. If it failed whilst rolling fast this could have been what might be known as a catastrophic failure, with injuries.

So, I am bike-less, now, til Thursday, when a new bike arrives...

In Walmart If You Can't Find A Price You Can't Find It Right Here

 The past couple weeks I have seen in the two Walmarts I way too frequently frequent what you see documented above in a photo my phone took a few minutes ago.

I refer to that big arrow pointing down, with the signage advising shoppers "Can't find a price? You can check it right here."

Except you can't. The price scanner devices have been removed from those two aforementioned Walmarts which I way too frequently frequent.

These now meaningless arrow pointing signs are located throughout the stores. These price check scanners were useful due to the fact that Walmart can be a bit sloppy with making clear the cost of an item sitting on a shelf with a lot of other items.

When the Walmart price scanners were still available one would see products left near the scanner, leading one to assume that someone checked the price and found out it was not what they were expecting. And so left the product at the scanner location.

Now, I have not found Walmart making pricing mistakes often, and by mistake I mean that the price which rings up is not the price indicated by the price sticker on the shelf. 

With Walmart I have found the price mistake can go either way, as in more than I thought the cost was, or less. The most recent example of the latter is I picked up a pack of frozen salmon filets, thought the pack was $11, due to the price tag on the shelf under the salmon. But, those frozen salmon filets rang up at $7.94. 

When I lived in Washington there was a grocery store which was chronic with price mistakes.

Albertsons.

I was appalled when I first arrived in Texas and asked a local what was the best grocery store in the area, with Albertsons being the answer.

There used to be an Albertsons in the town I am currently in, but, I think the three Walmarts in this town caused Albertsons to not be able to survive. Even though Albertsons aggravated me, this did not stop me from buying something there every once in awhile.

Such as the Albertsons fried chicken. I liked their fried chicken...

Sharing Homesick For Washington With Jan's Big Beautiful Appomattox Buns

I have discovered I am not the only one exiled from the Pacific Northwest who suffers pangs of homesickness when seeing images which evoke what it is like to live in that scenic wonderland. 

One is particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon when one finds oneself living in a part of America pretty much devoid of being any sort of scenic wonderland.

Janice Small shared my journey through the Burlington, Washington education system. I do not recollect ever seeing Janice Small after that day we all graduated from Burlington-Edison High School, many decades ago.

But now, years and years and years later, I have found Janice Small again, now going by the name Jan McNutt. I suspect a husband may be involved in that name change.

This formerly Small person now lives in Virginia.

Appomattox to be precise.

Where Ms. McNutt is famous due to her Big Beautiful Buns, which she sells Saturdays at the Appomattox Farmer's Market.

Ms. McNutt posted that which you see above, on Facebook, yesterday, as in, on Saturday, the day she was busy selling her Big Beautiful Buns.

The photo is a view of Bellingham Bay. Bellingham is a town in Whatcom County about 20 miles south of the border with Canada. I lived in Bellingham for a couple years back in the 1970s. Bellingham, and Bellingham Bay is the location of the southern terminus of the Alaskan Ferry.

When posting the above photo Ms. McNutt commented "Getting pretty homesick for beautiful WA!!! Hoping to get out there this fall."
 
I too am getting pretty homesick. I was hoping to get out there this summer, but I do not see that happening...

WCMA Doctor's Splash Pad Up & Running Water In Wichita Falls Hamilton Park

Early yester evening my bike took me north on the Circle Trail, eventually reaching Hamilton Park where I saw the cooling scene you see above.

The Doctor's Splash Pad seems to be a rousing success, judging by the number of people I have seen since it opened enjoying getting splashed on.

The Doctor's Splash Pad and its adjacent climbing playground were brought about by the good people of the Wichita County Medical Alliance. 

Below is a screen cap from the WCMA website.

Okay, the actual Doctor's Splash Pad, in its completed state, looks a little different than the artist's conceptual rendering on the WCMA website, but the conceptual rendering is fairly close to the eventual reality.

Methinks this is a mighty fine thing the WCMA doctors have done. A literally cool place to take the kids, with no admission fee, and with a big parking lot. Along with modern restroom facilities. 

I can think of another Texas town, or two, I have lived in which might do itself a favor by emulating the good example of Wichita Falls, including building modern restroom facilities and getting rid of outhouses.

Fort Worth. Are you listening?