Look at What's Happening Down in Christoval

Excitement filled the air at a public forum Tuesday night at the Community Center in Christoval. Citizens were gathered to hear the latest updates on all of Christoval’s recent improvements and upcoming opportunity.

“There’s an opportunity here to really recreate Christoval, which I think many people for a long time thought might never happen,” said Sylvia Pate, Revitalize! Christoval Founder. “We have been working on the Revitalize Christoval! effort for about three and a half years,” Pate explained. “We have partners including Angelo State University and the Small Business Development Center. The University of Texas San Antonio Architecture School is beginning to help us redefine what our Main Street is going to look like. The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is heavily involved in helping bring Christoval back because it was the first art colony in Texas,” she said.. “More and more we are doing a grassroots effort and getting more people involved in contributing to the effort.”

 Christoval is an unincorporated town, meaning there is no city government or tax base to fund any projects.  “It’s purely on the shoulders of the community to do what they can to get things moving along,” Pate said.

Tuesday night also marked the first Little League baseball games played on a Christoval field in what seems like forever to area residents. The baseball fields have been have been brought back to life due to the diligent efforts of many volunteers and donations.  Traffic from the games should help to stimulate the economic growth of the small community. Two games will be played every night of the week except Wednesday nights, and will bring players from Wall, Carlsbad, and San Angelo,( just to name a few) ,to Christoval  for America’s favorite past time. Saturday, March 28, will be an open field day for anyone curious to see fresh baseball diamonds or crack a bat.

Texas Disposal Systems will do their part to help beautify Christoval on Saturday. The waste disposal company will be donating the use of large dumpster containers for clean-up volunteers. Volunteers will be scouring the neighborhoods and open fields collecting unsightly trash that has collected as the result of flooding and illegal dumping.

The Christoval Volunteer Fire Department are now the owners of a brand new 2015 custom made Ferrara Fire Truck from New Orleans. “It holds a thousand gallons of water and is used to go to structure fires and also car accidents, it carries the jaws of life, and other extrication tools in case anyone is trapped,” said Jimmy Barton of the CVFD.

 A combination of grants from the San Angelo Health Foundation, San Angelo Area Foundation, Texas Forest Service, the Dodge-Jones Foundation of Abilene, and the Abell Hanger Foundation of Midland helped pay for the badly needed fire truck. It took about a year to pull together the $225,000 necessary to purchase the truck, which the department funded 20 percent of themselves. The new unit replaces the 1981 Ford Pumper on loan from the Texas Forest Service the department was using before.

Commissoner Bill Ford has been the catalyst for the revitalization and recovery of Pugh Park since he discovered unused grant money from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. The park has been closed off to the public since last fall in order for undisturbed construction and preservation along the river banks to take place. According to Ford, about half of the trees along the heavily traveled riverbank could not be saved due to years of soil compaction.

“I know a lot of you already know most of the park has been fenced and gated,” Ford said. “It will stay that way except for the boat ramp area when that opens up in a couple of weeks [we] will move the fence to the north side of the boat ramp, and everything south will be opened up for boating and camping,” he said. “Then after that the project is slow moving because of money issues, but as that comes we will continue revitalizing that area,” Ford explained.

Future plans to build a pavilion, restrooms, picnic areas, finish the clean-up of the riverbank beyond the 400 feet of bank that’s already been improved, and incorporating a rail type fence around the perimeter of the park were items Ford also outlined.

 “It’s going to take a while, but it took 40 years for it to get in the shape it’s in, and fixing it won’t happen overnight,” Ford said. “A lot of things are going to change in the park, because it has not been safe for your children to go there, and I know that,” he said. “We’ve got baseball going on down there now and I’m not going to let those kids or families be frightened over people that may want to come down and abuse the park,” he vowed. “The Sheriff is on our side and they patrol the park and help us out a lot. But, at night and after ball games, the gate will be locked and it’s not permissible to be in the park, it is closed. It will be closed until the construction is complete.”

Ford also outlined the plan to sell a 750 acre plot that Tom Green County owns to help fund the efforts to revitalize Pugh Park. “I wish I could say that 100 percent of the funds will go straight to that purpose, but I can’t seeing as how it is the county’s money,” he said. “However five acres of that land will be set aside for the Christoval Volunteer Fire Department, they really need more space,” Ford said. The CVFD is currently tucked away in a small fire station downtown behind the Community Center.

Sheriff David Jones has made law enforcement presence known in the area. The Sheriff and deputies have been communicating with local businesses to collect emergency info from owners in case something should go awry overnight. “We are coming by and doing walk throughs at night, we are trying to be a little more proactive in that area,” Sheriff Jones said. “It takes the community to help us, call us if you see something going on, or something suspicious, we are there to come by and take whatever enforcement action we can to protect the community.”

Christoval ISD has taken steps on its own to help ensure the safety of students when it was one of the first in the state to implement the Guardian Plan, where highly trained and vetted staff members carry concealed firearms, at the end of last year.

For more information on Revitalize! Christoval by email [email protected] or by phone: (214) 533-5556.