By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com

City workers have been busy making improvements to Buddy Stewart Park located near Lake Pat Cleburne, said Max Robertson, Cleburne parks and recreation director.

“Individually, they’re some fairly minor things, but it all adds up to make the park look nicer,” Robertson said. “The idea is to promote the fact that the park is out there, and to encourage more family oriented activities, and get more people to visit and use the park.”

City workers have improved picnic tables, parking and the park’s boat ramp among other things.

Workers also recently constructed a bird-watching area, a fenced-off viewing area with bird feeders behind it.

“It will give people a chance to get up close and personal with the birds,” Robertson said.

The green wooden fence contains slots for viewing and shooting pictures. Mike Utecht, supervisor of parks, tree stumps and logs placed in front of the fence.

“We went with natural seating,” Utecht said with a laugh. “We actually found these washed up on the banks of Nolan River after the last rains. We had a couple of young kids out here the other day, so it’s been kid tested and approved.”

The feeders and fence sit by the river bank in a marshy, overgrown area.

“We put it here because people don’t usually fish in this area,” Utecht said. “So it will stay pretty quiet and undisturbed.”

Plans call for installing duck boxes in the river in the near future, he said.

Utecht said he got the idea for the bird watching area after he saw a similar installation in Oklahoma City.

“We decided to put this in Buddy Stewart because it’s a little ways out of the city,” Utecht said. “Putting it here instead of Winston Patrick McGregor Park in a native setting, we hope it will attract more native wild birds other than just sparrows and grackles.”

Parks workers also put up about 15 birdhouses throughout the park, houses built and donated by local 4-H clubs, in hopes of attracting blue birds.

Other improvements include the installation of new soccer field goals and baseball and softball backstops.

Concrete picnic tables, many of which had been chipped away and damaged through the years, have been given new wooden tabletops and seats.

Plans call for the installation of more picnic tables and benches along the riverbank, Utecht said.

“One big problem was people driving wherever in the park,” Utecht said. “So we put more posts and cable up to prevent that, and signs saying designated parking. Some of the complaints we heard though were that people couldn’t pull up to the river to fish. So we went back and established several areas where people can do that.”

Workers plan to redo the park entrance sign soon and replace the junipers surrounding it with native, low-maintenance plants.

Another long-range goal includes installing elevated walkway ramps that will snake through a swampy area in the middle of the park. An area which will also include more bird feeders and boxes, Utecht said.

“The goal, other than the soccer and baseball fields, is to keep Buddy Stewart as a natural area as much as possible,” Utecht said.

Last year city leaders authorized a comprehensive study of Lake Pat Cleburne to determine needs, recommendations and long-term plans.

Although city council members have discussed possibilities and suggested projects for the area, no definite decisions or plans have been reached.

Robertson and other city leaders have long called the lake a gem of untapped potential for residents and tourists.

Work on that project will likely occur in stages over several years, Robertson said.

“These things we’re doing at Buddy Stewart right now weren’t specifically mentioned in the Lake Pat master plan study,” Robertson said. “But they definitely tie into the overall concept of that larger project and some of the improvements we hope to make out at the lake.”