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It
used to be called Miller-Showers Park, after a couple of historic Bloomington
fellows, and it served as the “entry” to Bloomington from Ind. 37 southbound
from Indianapolis for as long as I can remember. Now, just about everyone is calling it Lake Fernandez, after our
mayor.
The
mayor is making a lasting and apparently never-ending impact on Bloomington
with his lake project. Lasting,
because it has changed the landscape on the north side. Never-ending because lots of residents are
convinced the bottom of Lake Fernandez will be somewhere in rural China,
or at least Cascades Park.
You
have no doubt read about problems the lake diggers have encountered. I guess they hit a limestone shelf that was
both hard to dig through and is prone to having holes eaten through
it, over time, by percolating water.
Now, who could have expected that?
A limestone problem encountered while digging in Bloomington? Imagine that.
Last
time I peered over the edge of Fernandez Gorge, it looked like it was
going to be pretty deep on the 17th Street end, way too deep
for a cane pole. That must be
the Chinese connection end, the deep end where the diving platform goes. The gorge gets more shallow as it moves north,
just like the gentle slope of a suburban swimming pool, to the wading
end.
But the city doesn’t envision Lake Fernandez as
a recreational facility in any way, shape or form. (Maybe picnics will
be allowed, or walking around it if they can figure out a way to protect
us from the vehicles buzzing past on both sides of the park or from
jumping into the deep end and getting sucked to China.)
It is to be a scenic vista for folks entering Bloomington, a
landscape painting if you will, that will please the IU Board of Trustees
with a lovely French (oops, sorry, Freedom) Impressionist scene.
The
main justification of this multi-million dollar project is said to be
controlling ground water run-off, and stopping said run-off from eroding
Cascades Park which receives runoff from that part of town.
I’ve been around Bloomington since 1962, and
one of the first stories I remember covering as a 20-something reporter
concerned stopping erosion at Cascades Park. Specifically, they wanted
to maintain the limestone banks laid to contain the creek way back in
the 1930s. The wall has been repaired many times, and the park is still
there, after all these years, as pretty as ever.
Wonder how it made it without Lake Fernandez?
There
will be no swimming, no fishing at Lake Fernandez. Recreational uses will be ad hoc, as on football game weekends.
Although
it is hard to find non-student residents in the Miller-Showers Park
area, there are a few, and by visiting offices and just talking to people
out working in their yards, I was able to find and speak with some of
these folks recently. The problem
is that not a one of them wanted to be identified, but their reasons
all sounded pretty good to me. Here
are a few samples:
Resident
1: “When they get it all done,
it will probably be real pretty, but it will be full of beer cans after
the first football game.” (“I
don’t want a bunch of city inspectors to start coming to my house, so
don’t use my name.”)
Resident
2: “I am going to get one of
those miniature submarines and float into the lake through the culverts. I figure nobody will see me that way, and I
can use the lake for secret boating.”
(“My wife works for the city!
Don’t say I said that!”)
Resident
3: “Wait until the first IU
student drowns in there. There’ll
be a six foot, electrified fence around it right away.”
(“Don’t use my name. I
don’t want city police cars hanging around waiting for me and my family
to leave to give us a seat belt ticket.”)
If
Lake Fernandez holds water, I am convinced it will make a beautiful
entrance to the north site of the city. But the city is again treating
a possible valuable aquatic recreation resource like something to be
feared instead of nurtured and managed for public use.
You
need look no further than Lake Wapahani and Lake Griffy to see what
the city thinks about managing aquatic recreation facilities. I guess we are lucky to be able to actually use a boat on Lake Griffy.
To our elected officials, water is a hazard, a bad thing, something
to be avoided, moved along unseen, held or covered (see the Jordan River
under downtown Bloomington).
I think what we really need on the deep end
of Lake Fernandez is a public dunking stool for politicians instead
of a direct route to China. Of course, this would be real public recreation
and that is something that isn’t covered in the master plan for Lake
Fernandez.
Click
here to email Don Jordan
©Copyright
2003. Jordan Communications.
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