Rio Vista Falls a finalist

San Marcos August 07, 2007 11:23 am

— The National League of Cities (NLC) has announced that the city of San Marcos is one of 35 finalists for the 2007 Award for Municipal Excellence for the Rio Vista Falls Transformation Project.
The awards recognize outstanding programs that have improved the quality of life in a city or town.
“San Marcos has demonstrated the leadership, creativity and innovation that the Awards for Municipal Excellence promote,” said Donald J. Borut, NLC’s executive director. “NLC applauds America’s cities and towns for continually striving to find new ways to meet the diverse needs of their citizens.
“We are thrilled that the National League of Cities has recognized the Rio Vista Project as a finalist for this prestigious award,” said Mayor Susan Narvaiz. “Transforming a collapsing dam into a whitewater park was a wonderful collaboration of residents, the city of San Marcos, federal and state agencies, engineers and contractors. Our community is very proud of this project.”
In November 2005, a kayaker paddling in the San Marcos River discovered that the century old low-water Rio Vista dam had started to collapse. The city closed the popular swimming hole and faced the dilemma of how to repair the dam before the 2006 summer recreational season began.
Residents asked officials to “think outside the box,” urging the city to create a whitewater park. After detailed discussions, the city council embraced the idea and put emergency funds in place.
City staff and contractors spent three months planning the project and then began construction in April, 2006. In 47 days the project was completed – two days before the Memorial Day weekend goal.
“The Rio Vista project has made the falls and the adjacent parks much more accessible and enjoyable to the public,” said City Manager Dan O’Leary. “The project exceeded all of our expectations.”
The project recently won the Central Texas chapter of the American Planning Association Innovative Planning Award and was a finalist in the Envision Central Texas redevelopment award program. The city also produced a documentary on the project called “Rio Vista Transformed.”
NLC received 168 nominations from cities and towns in 37 states and Puerto Rico. The winners of the 2007 awards will be announced at the NLC’s Congress of Cities and Exposition in New Orleans, La. Nov. 13-17.
The awards program is co-sponsored by CH2M Hill and the NLC. Details about the program can be found at www.nlc.org.
The National League of Cities is the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC serves 19,000 cities, towns and villages representing more than 218 million Americans.