Hoover completes renovations at Georgetown Lake Park
Hoover officials on Wednesday celebrated the completion of renovations to Georgetown Lake Park.
The city this summer spent $70,000 replacing almost all the woodwork in the park and installing a new fountain in the 3-acre lake. The neighborhood park sits off Lorna Road, just east of the Colonial Park Condominiums and between the Monte D’Oro and Chapel Hills neighborhoods.
The woodwork replacement was extensive, including a walkway along the eastern side of the lake, two small bridges, picnic tables, benches and a pier with a gazebo at the end of it in the lake.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato told a crowd of several dozen people who assembled at the park Wednesday that Georgetown Lake Park was built pretty close to the same time as the Monte D’Oro neighborhood, which is one of the oldest established neighborhoods in the city.
“It needed some tender love and care,” Brocato said. “I’m just so proud of our park and recreation employees who came out and tore all the old infrastructure out and rebuilt what you see here and did a lot of landscaping and cleaning. It really has made a big difference. It’s a beautiful park.”
The wooden structures were showing their age. Also, storms over the past two years have twice broken loose one of the bridges that was part of the walkway around the lake, said City Forester Colin Conner, who oversaw the project. The new bridge that replaced it will be attached to the concrete on either side, he said.
Also, the previous fountain that was in the lake was 13 years old, Conner said.
Hoover Parks and Recreation Director Erin Colbaugh noted that lights in the park were replaced just a couple of years ago. It’s a great place for people to come out and walk and fish, whether they live in the immediate surrounding neighborhoods or not, Colbaugh said.
The lake on Wednesday had about 30 Muscovy ducks in and around it.
The renovation project took about eight weeks to complete and was finished about three weeks ago, Conner said.
Rickey Phillips, president of the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board, thanked Brocato and the Hoover City Council for investing in the park and noted that Georgetown Lake Park is the location of the first tree planted as part of a memorial tree program started by the city.
Glen Houlditch, a former board member for the Monte D’Oro Neighborhood Association who has lived in the community for 30 years, said the Georgetown Lake Park is one of his favorite parks, but it needed some work. He’s glad to see the improvements because it’s a great place to come exercise, walk with kids or just sit down and enjoy the view, he said.
Wendy Malone, a resident of Chapel Hills for 23 years who lives just .3 miles away, said she has always enjoyed the park and likes to come over and walk around it. She likes it because it’s kind of hidden from the rest of the city, and she feels safe there, she said. The new improvements make it look much nicer, she said.
Brocato said this project is the perfect example of what city officials want to do in Hoover.
“That’s to invest in our neighborhoods to make sure they’re vibrant, that our kids feel good coming out here, that our families feel good coming out here,” the mayor said. “It’s all about quality of life.”