 
Gulfport Tax Money at Work
Jones Park Gets Ponds, Wispy Fountains
by Keith Burton GCN 6/24/08
Finally, nearly three years after Katrina destroyed Gulfport's Jones
Park, there are signs of real improvements at the once heavily used park.
The city has established two small ponds in the area that was once only
dirt. The ponds cannot be seen from U.S. 90, or even from the parking
areas inside the park, but they are there, lying low near some trees.
The
ponds have a couple of benches, some plants and small fountains that blow
wispy streams of water into the air. The fountains look particularly
vulnerable to vandalism.
Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr has been frequently criticized over the lack
of progress on getting Jones Park back in shape. He recently
spoke as a guest on a local radio station glowingly saying that the ponds
are drawing visitors back and that the park was in the best shape it has
ever been. GCN noted that the only visitor we saw was an apparent homeless
man sleeping on one of the benches.
The nearby harbor remains empty though boaters do use the boat
launches. Work on the harbor is said to get underway in July, but it will
be many months before it is a harbor again. Currently it is mostly a
huge
shoreline lake.
War also plans a huge amphitheater at Jones Park for the future, and
and then relocate the existing boat launches to another yet unbuilt
location east of the seawall on the beach. Still, boaters find the harbor
a suitable location to launch their boats. Parking for vehicles and boat
trailers are in a dirt lot nearby.
But some progress is better than no progress, whispy fountains and all.
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