 Hi, I'm Susan Yerkes, and this is Breckenridge Park. Okay, one of the great changes that personally I've seen for the park is the foundation finally of a conservancy like a friends group to kind of guide, shape the park and to raise awareness and also money for private projects. And Lynn Osborn-Bobbin is the executive director of the relatively new Breckenridge Park Conservancy. Tell me about how you plan to receive the conservancy. Yes, the conservancy is a growing organization. It was formed in 2009, and it's interesting how it formed. The Conservation Society foresighted an organization in this community. Back in 2005, we began noticing the need for an advocacy group to protect and enhance Breckenridge Park. And so they created a committee of city leaders and city staff in the parks department as well as other people, one in particular, Betsy Barlow Rogers, a Sanitonian who was in New York and heading at the Central Park Conservancy. So she came down, met with Conservation Society and group and presented a white paper about how to form the conservancy. And so we actually received our 501C3 status in 2009. We have a small board of about 15 that work to, as Susan said, raise funds not only to host special events as fundraisers that would generate money to work on projects in the park, but also host events such as Parktoberfest every fall, which brings people into the park to enjoy it and to celebrate the German heritage that this west side of the park is known for. It was property given by Mrs. Emma Koehler in memory of her husband Otto Koehler, who was the owner of San Antonio Brewing Company back from Pearl Beer. So as in now Pearl Development and Ms. Emma Hotel. So this was about 11 acres that was traditionally a late 1800s family gathering place and the Koehlers bought it in 2001 and then Mrs. Koehler donated it in late 2015. And so over a hundred years of celebrating the Parktoberfest side of the river. And there are other activities. There are such things that need to be done as restoration of the river walls. These were done of WPA National Youth Administration days. They have been restored? They have not. The one has just been completed. There are various sections that are some in more need than others but one just by the train tracks has been completed. But the Conservancy is interested in what other sections of the river what other infrastructure projects could be included in 2017. What was the cost to complete that one little section? The one section that was just completed was I think less than a hundred feet and it was five hundred and sixty thousand. However, that contractor did this as a lot of part of the park because the next estimate that has come in on the near the Joskee Pavilion preliminary estimate to three million dollars just for the river wall. That one section. Now the city owns the park but the Conservancy is working to make it better and I understand that after the kind of giant community discussion and some protests that arose about a master climb that was recently completed and then changed because of the city input I understand that the Conservancy is looking at a way to really make that whole planning process work more smoothly. Can you talk a little about that? Yes. I'd like to say just one thing about the Conservancy is that when it was created in 2009 the executive director at that time was Lila Powell and many of you may know her dad, Boone Powell and the architecture firm for talent Carson. She worked diligently to lay the framework on which we are building now and it's given us the wherewithal to bring additional people in as special friends to not only raise the visibility of the park but funds as you just said. And so one of the things as a result of the master plan draft process underway was to expand the documentation and analysis. I know you don't want to talk about one more study. However, there was some information that was lacking. There was human gather here in Bracken Ridge or the area known as Bracken Ridge dating back 100,000 years. So then you come to the Spanish colonial period then you come to the late 1800s when Bracken Ridge donated property for this as a municipal park and then on into modern time. So we the Conservancy would like to continue with this documentation in the form of a cultural landscape report. We are raising funds to do this work and think of it as an overlaying maps of all of the various cultures here in the park so you would have a framework from which to move forward before any other decisions are made about changes. It's inevitable that change does take place in a public park. This park has been shaped by its users and so the goal is to look at ways that you can accommodate the visitor, improve the park, take care of deferred maintenance and maintain the special traditions such as driving into the park and Easter camping. And so what the Conservancy is doing with the work of the cultural landscape report is to provide that common ground for projects that can take place in the future. And one of those is the restoration of the upper labor of Spanish colonial ban in the state. That's great. And we'll take a look at that also. I think you're talking about restoring the mill cross. Hopefully, maybe a visitor center for the park. Yes. Let's go look at that. Let's do it. Okay. We're standing in front of the office of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy and it will operate as two functions. Our official office here in the park as well as an interim visitor center. We're looking forward to giving guided tours, walking tours as well as bicycle tours and perhaps displaying some of the important artifacts that have been found here in the park. We have not had a visitor center that provides information about the history of the park and the city in this location before. So we are thankful to the Nancy Smith Heard Foundation for a major grant to renovate the interior of the building that the city has leased us. And I'd like to thank the parks department as well for providing additional funds to finish out the project. So we'll have a small meeting space inside as well as office space and visitor center. The building looks older than it is. It was built in 1979 by the Stone Mason Curtis Hunt and it was done for the concessionaire Phil Sheridan. So it wasn't originally a concession building and then later a reservation building for Parks and Recreation Department. Curtis is an amazing Stone Mason, very well known, major projects in San Antonio and he's a part of restoring the west side of the building and putting additional stonework so we can open up two doors and make them windows. So we are very thankful to all of our sponsors and RBK architects who donated the design work. On this side of the park, I'd like to mention that there are particular projects that should and can be done. And at this time, the Brackenbridge Conservancy is proposing and supporting the recommendation of the parks department to redo some of the Depression-era river walls. You'll see over here to the left where there are wood panels holding up the wall and protecting the tree. This estimate from the old pump house which was built in 1878 all the way down to the bridge is estimated to cost $3 million. And with that being done, we could then clean out the silt in the river. Perhaps the Pup House Foundation can be repaired and the Conservancy can then pick it up from the infrastructure work that we are hoping will be in the 2017 bond election. And finish out the pump house and open that up to the public. The pump house number one was the original waterworks system for the city of San Antonio. And Colonel Brackenbridge acquired the municipal waterworks in the late 1870s and operated it into the early 20th century when the city purchased it. There is a raceway that takes the water from the river and then it went into the lower level of the pump house turned turbines that then pumped the water through the park and then underneath Broadway then River Avenue to the reservoir which is at the top which is now the Botanical Center. George W. Brackenbridge gave the first donation of the park 199 acres in 1899 and it was the east side it went from pretty much Hildebrand all the way down to Josephine and then a little bit later he donated what is now known as Monkey Park he was a very good friend of Mr. Monkey's and Mr. Monkey was a Parks Commissioner and he donated that land to be dedicated to his friend Mr. Monkey. Mr. Monkey then became a Parks Commissioner and many of the early roads that were put into the park because you have to remember that was at the turn of the century when there were still horse carriages as well as the Model T and new cars that were coming on so it was very much laid out at that time to be a respite from the hustle and bustle of the big city and come out into nature and enjoy yourselves and so the park itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and then there are various features within the park that are listed. Standing in Mira Flores this is a piece of property that is now part of Bracken Ridge Park it was acquired by Dr. Euridia in the 1920s he had immigrated here from Mexico during the Mexican Revolution and made San Antonio his home and he acquired this property that went all the way to Broadway and turned it into a sculpture garden or a pleasure garden he had originally thought this might be a sanitarium he had opened a sanitarium in Mexico City and we have one structure over here that is called Quinta Maria and we think that perhaps that was the beginning of it but then the depression came and no more structures were built however he worked with Dionisio Rodriguez who was here in San Antonio doing faux bois or reinforced concrete work that is made to look like trees it is made out of cement and he employed Mr. Rodriguez to do the palapa that you are seeing benches, there is a hollow log over here as well as bringing an additional artist to do other pieces of work he brought pottery from the Puebla area Talibera Pottery and you will look over here to my right you will see the gates that have just recently been done the parks department and the conservation society have been working closely to redo this area and the gates and lighting have just been finished as of October 1 there will be work beginning on a walkway starting at the end of this bridge to go into Metafloris a walkway around Dr. Eurydia that you see and then over to the gateway and perhaps then the parks department can open this on an as guided basis and the conservancy is interested in giving guided tours there is a master plan for this piece of property which is separate from the master plan that has been discussed for the remainder of the acres of Bracken Ridge and this was done in 2007 and the intent was and still is to restore it to garden along the river and interpret its many assets so we hope soon to be able to do guided tours and work with the parks department to do that the conservancy is interested in facilitating is the removal of invasive plantings and plants and trees that are growing within the river channel anybody interested we would love to have you come aboard and help do this we of course would coordinate with the parks department and see there is great need to take out what is not appropriate for this area and have a tree planting program perhaps garden clubs others master gardeners could adopt sections of the river to get this done and support the parks and recreation department with their to-do list