Master plan revealed for Lufkin’s Morris Frank Park

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - The Lufkin City Council was presented and approved a master plan to completely redo one of the city’s largest parks.

Lufkin City Council was presented a 30-to-40-million-dollar project to revamp Morris Frank Park. The current park sits on approximately 136 acres and includes 13 youth baseball and soccer fields, 1 youth football field, several undesignated soccer fields, and an 18-hole disc golf course.

City Manager Kevin Gee Says this park has been in use for decades and needs renovations.

“It was obvious that there was a need to make improvements and we chose to pursue a master plan to look at the full picture, the full potential for that park to see what could be done instead of making repairs as we went,” Gee said.

This project will be completed in phases. Phase one would include minor work to the existing baseball and softball fields in what they call “pod A.” In pod B additional baseball and softball fields would be added. In pod D they would add football and soccer fields.

It is also suggested that in this phase ticketing, bathrooms and concessions should be renovated and add a playground, and basketball courts to this phase.

“Phase one that we were proposing is in the 8 to 10 million range. Those are planning estimates, early on estimates. As you go into detail design, we should be able to refine that and get a better estimate,” Gee said.

Gee says these improvements allows the City of Lufkin to attract more people, and businesses to move to the area. He says this also allows them to host recreational regional sporting events.

“So hopefully with an updated new facility, our goal is to be able to have venue for those regional tournaments, that draws people in staying in our hotels, eating at our restaurants, their shopping, and it helps the whole community,” Gee said.

The city council still has to decide where funding for the renovations will come from.

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