Boardwalk repaired, Cypress Pond Trail reopens at PCB Conservation Park. What's coming next?
PANAMA CITY BEACH — Jim Moyers, biologist and supervisor of Conservation Park, says it's important to keep the park up to date for the many residents and visitors who use it to stay in touch with nature.
On Aug. 2, park officials reopened about a half-mile of Cypress Pond Trail that was closed for almost two weeks as crews repaired a boardwalk.
"We want visitors to the park to have a pleasant experience," Moyers said. "We don't want our facilities falling apart underneath them. We want them to enjoy their visit here, not have a bad experience sticking a foot through a boardwalk that's not taken care of."
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City officials noted 32 feet of boardwalk was replaced on the trail.
As of Friday afternoon, a city Facebook post which announced the trail was reopened had 145 reactions, about 20 comments and more than a dozen shares. The majority of comments were from people who said they enjoy visiting the park or from others who posted a picture from a past trip.
Located west of State 79 in Panama City Beach, Conservation Park boasts about 2,900 acres of preserved land, more than 22 miles of trails and 11 boardwalks, the oldest of which were built about eight years ago. There also are a dozen trails at the park that range from about one-half mile to 11 miles in length, according to PCB's website.
The repairs to the boardwalk of Cypress Pond Trail will be followed by a larger project to completely revamp all boardwalks at the park during the next few years, Moyers said.
He also said city officials are working on a request for proposals for the project, which he planned to advertise to developers by the end of the year. Cypress Pond's boardwalk was repaired beforehand to prevent any accidents since it was in the worst shape.
"Over the next three to four years, we're going to do a complete rehab of the boardwalks," Moyers said. "In the meantime, we'll continue to do deck-board replacements as needed if we've got a bad deck board, or if we find soft spots on a section of boardwalk ... just to make sure that our facilities remain safe and usable.
"... We felt like we needed to address those sections of (the Cypress Pond Trail) boardwalk immediately or somebody might end up having a problem on it."
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Panama City Beach Conservation Park reopens Cypress Pond Trail
