THE ‘PEARL’ OPENS TO A BIG CROWD Charlotte unveils new Oyster Creek Regional Park

ENGLEWOOD — It was billed as the grand opening of a new park but it was actually the new opening of a grand park.

More than 300 people attended ceremonies Friday evening commemorating the official opening of Charlotte County’s Oyster Creek Regional Park.

The 421-acre park off San Casa features a 300,000-gallon Olympic-sized swimming pool, ball fields, a meeting center with locker rooms, basketball courts, tennis and basketball courts, as well as the county’s first cricket field and skate park.

Amenities aside, the park’s best asset is space — much of it remains natural lands and trails winding through scrub oak and pine flatwoods along Oyster Creek.

The park links 841 acres of public land from San Casa west to Placida Road in Grove City, encompassing Oyster Creek and Cedar Point environmental parks and Ainger Creek Park and boat launch.

Oyster Creek — already coined “the pearl of Englewood” — is the county’s third regional park, partially financed through the 1998 and 2002 penny sales tax.

The county purchased the final 136 acres for the park in February 2001 for $4.3 million and awarded an $11.6 million contract to Mathews/Taylor Construction to build it in November 2004.

With an additional $3.6 million to refurbish Pop Warner football fields and other enhancements, the park ultimately cost $17.7 million.

However, Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Director Laura Kleiss Hoeft said much of the land-acquisition costs was defrayed by Florida Community Trust grants orchestrated by the county and the Lemon Bay Conservancy.

Mathews/Taylor was also the primary contractor in developing 90-acre, $11 million South County Regional Park east of Punta Gorda, which opened in May 2005.

North Charlotte Regional Park will be completed next May, Kleiss Hoeft said.

Commissioner Tom Moore said Oyster Creek Regional Park is, truly, a community park.

“It wasn’t one fund, one person’s idea, it was a pool of people in a partnership that made this happen,” he said. “It speaks well of this community, how we do things together.”

Moore praised the “great partnerships” of a range of groups, from Pop Warner to the Suncoast Humane Society, which successfully lobbied for a dog park in the park.

He said without a $200,000 donation from 60-year Englewood resident Jean Berlin, the $863,000 skate park would not be possible.

Berlin’s daughter, Kathy, said her mother isn’t just donating money, she’s actively involved in planning the skate park and in raising money for it from other sources.

“The skateboarders of Englewood are really lucky to have my mom in their corner,” she said, noting her mother will be at Wal-Mart today, selling mini-skateboards for $1 for the skate park.

Wal-Mart will match money raised during today’s fundraiser for the skate park, which will open in July.

While Berlin’s donation got the ball rolling, Moore said Englewood’s three Rotary clubs have rallied to help, contributing a $20,000 check to the skate park Friday.

Lemon Bay High School Principal Dan Jeffers said the network of parks will be “a tremendous asset” for school children of all ages.

Not only will the park’s pool serve as Lemon Bay’s home venue in swimming competitions, Jeffers said the trails and waterways will be a nearby outdoor lab for science studies.

Moore said without the Englewood Water District’s extensive reused water irrigation system, “You’d see nothing but sand here for months and months to come.”

In all, he said, it took 22 federal, state and local permits to get the park approved.

“That’s a lot of paper, a lot of time, a lot of anguish,” Moore said. “Gosh, I’m glad I didn’t have to do it.”

He said the park is the manifestation of “a saga of partnerships.”

“It took so many people. That, to me, is the neat part of the story,” Moore said.

But the most important partner was the voters of Charlotte County, Commission Chairman Dick Loftus said.

The park would not be possible if voters didn’t choose to extend the 1 cent sales tax —essentially, agreed to tax themselves — in 2003, he said.

“It was the citizens of Charlotte County who made this happen,” Loftus said.

“Take care of it,” Kleiss Hoeft said. “Love it. Make it work.”

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