CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For areas of North Beach, flooding is a constant headache and even made one local park unusable most of the time.
Surfside Park, once an eyesore, is no longer there.
Barb Johnson lives next to the park which has been in disrepair for years due to the constant flooding.
"It has been so sad to see such a beautiful space wasted where people couldn't even park there much less use the beach around it," Johnson said.
3NEWS spoke with two local moms at a nearby park, Miranda Deforest and Jennifer Hatmaker, about the changes to rebuild Surfside.
Deforest is ready to bring her children to the park to play.
"I have two toddlers and one on the way so if it's toddler friendly, even more of a bonus," she said. "Kind of hard to find toddler friendly playgrounds around here."
"We were here for a mom's group this morning so yeah, we have a lot of mom's that come in," Hatmaker said. "We meet them at different parks around the place, so that will be a good one to plan on in the future whenever it's finished."
There are a few big blue waves now in the play area which are climbing structures similar to rock climbing. The hand and foot holes will be a rubberized to protect children who are climbing the waves. There are also a couple of diving dolphins and some sea shells in the play area!
District 1 Council Member Everett Roy, who spearheaded the $6 million renovation, said putting the restrooms on pilings was just part of the big improvement to the park.
"One of the things we had to do was to elevate it of course to meet the flood requirements," Everett said. "Because the old structure, even though it was grandfathered, once we tore that down we had to follow the new flood zone procedures."
Johnson believes the improved park just about completes the paradise feel of North Beach.
"The only other park we have is down at the end and the roads turn into dirt, so nobody understands that we have a great park down there surrounded with dirt roads."
The contractor told 3NEWS the park should be complete by the beginning of June.
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