Newstory: Parks and Pools Bond Vote - 1956

Contributed by Brenda Scott Hines
August 2015
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The Bronte Enterprise, Coke County, TX - April 6, 1956

Park Bond Vote to Be Saturday

Voting on the $130,000 park bond will be held Saturday.  Residents, 
when they vote on the bond issue, will decide whether or not the 
commissioners' court will be authorized to issue bonds to obtain 
funds for building parks in Bronte and Robert Lee.

The Proposal is to spend $65,000 in Bronte and $65,000 in Robert Lee.  
One of the main features of the program would be construction of swimming 
pools in each of the parks.  The remainder of the money would be spent 
in building other park facilities such as a caretaker's house, 
tennis courts, picnic tables, barbecue pits, etc., and for landscaping 
the park area.                                                                     

Plans call for the pools to be sufficiently large to meet junior AAU 
specifications, thereby making them large enough to be used for swimming 
meets.  The schools in the two towns would be encouraged to use the 
pools in connection with their athletic programs.

Bronte's park would be located east of town below the old city lake, 
while Robert Lee proposes to locate its park at the site now occupied 
by the barns of Coke County Livestock Association.                                                                                   

Tenative plans call for the construction of a caretaker's house to be 
built at the Bronte site.  Other plans include building tables, water 
fountains, barbecue pits, foot bridges, and spending a good bit of 
money on trees, grass, flowers, etc.       

The election is county wide, and voting boxes will be set up at 
Robert Lee, Bronte, Fort Chadbourne, Tennyson, Divide, Sanco, Silver, 
Edith, Widlcat, Olga, Ainsley Turner Ranch, Lometa, Hayrick and Juniper.                                                             

Funds to retire the bonds will be taken from the permanent improvement 
fund. County officials say there is sufficient money in the fund each 
year to retire the bonds without any additional taxation. The fund 
presently has about $90.000 in it. The commissioners' court is 
authorized by state law to set aside 5 cents out of the fund for a 
recreation and park program.                                                                                                  

The campaign for building the parks was started and has been backed 
by the Robert Lee BCD and by the city council in Bronte.  Tentative 
surveys of both sites have been made by W. W. Grief & Associates, 
engineering firm, and much work has been done in order to bring 
the program to a vote of the people Saturday.                          


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