El Paso County is planning major renovations at As | RSS.com
Diego Mendoza-Moyers: Big changes could be coming to Ascarate Park in the next few years.
At over 400 acres in size, Ascarate is the biggest urban park in the El Paso area, and its eponymous lake is also among the largest bodies of water in the region. But, rather than celebrating the park in its current form, I often hear people talk about what Ascarate Park “could” be or “should” be, and that it could become the Borderland’s crown jewel with just enough investment.
And now, the county has funding of over $30 million in hand that voters approved in a bond election back in November 2024. So, county officials are moving forward with renovating the park in a major way.
The county hired a local architecture firm last year for $4.2 million called Exigo, which last week showed county commissioners early concepts of new projects at the park, including a visitor center, a field and concert venue, a renovated walking trail, new picnic shelters and bathrooms, and maybe most importantly, a series of small projects to improve the water quality and fishing experience at Ascarate Lake.
Construction at the park is slated to start in spring 2027 and run through 2029. But, despite the multi-year timeline, I wanted to talk through the projects that voters liked enough to fund with property tax-supported debt a year-and-a-half-ago. El Paso Matters assistant editor Pablo Villa will join me in just a moment to talk about the future of Ascarate Park.
But first, this El Paso Matters podcast episode is brought to you by our podcast title sponsor, Tawney, Acosta and Chaparro, truck crash and injury attorneys. Their team of local, seasoned trial attorneys are ready to help if you’ve been injured in a crash.
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Pablo, thanks for hosting today.
Pablo Villa: Diego, thank you for having me. It’s nice to be in the host chair once again, talking about something that’s very meaningful to the rest of El Paso, Ascarate Park, today. A place that’s coming up on its 90th birthday, right, about 86-years-old now. And a place that’s just always been influenced by external factors, right? I mean, even from its inception, that area of El Paso was always at the mercy of nature before the International Boundary and Water Commission channeled the river, right?
So, it’s just a place that’s continually evolved, right? I think every generation, it’s meant something different to them. We talked a little bit about it before the show. What are some of your early memories of Ascarate out at the park?
Diego: Yeah, I mean, I’m a Westsider, but I’ve spent some time there fishing a little bit when I was a kid. And, really, I heard a lot of stories from older people, like my dad or dad’s friends about, like, ripping boats out in the middle of the lake back in the day, which I don’t think you can do anymore.
But, yeah, I think it’s kind of a park that holds a lot of value and a lot of memories to a lot of people of many generations in El Paso. So, certainly a key part of the city, for sure.
Pablo: And I have a few years on you, not too many, right? But I certainly grew up at a time when Western Playland was there, had a lot of fun with that and company barbecues and things like that with my parents. But I know many years before that, there was actually a racetrack that existed at Ascarate Park, right?
So, again, it’s just a place that’s meant many things to many people and it’s changed a lot over the years. And it sounds like that’s going to continue, right? So, I know, as you mentioned, at the jump of the podcast, there’s some money that the county has at its disposal to try to prepare it for the next generation, right?
So, can you sort of set the scene for us? Where are we right now with Ascarate Park? What are some of the funding mechanisms in place? And just give us a good picture of what’s coming.
Diego: First off, I always appreciate the history lessons, Pablo, that you always school me on when it comes to El Paso lore.
And, yeah, I think that’s a good way to put it. Like, the county, I think, is looking at this as the next step of Ascarate and sort of the next generation of the park, if you will. And just to go back, I mean, it’s felt longer than a year-and-a-half, almost, since November 2024. But voters approved $95 million in a bond item for the county for county parks, of which about $31 million of that $95 million was dedicated for Ascarate Park.
And voters might remember they rejected multiple other items, I think, for, like, a new county courthouse annex and for renovations at the (El Paso County) Coliseum. However, voters thought enough of Ascarate Park and the county-owned parks to go ahead and say, “Hey, yes, county, you can issue some debt to renovate these.”
And again, that was back in November 2024, $31 million for Ascarate. And I just have to kind of differentiate, because some of the work we’ll talk about at Ascarate really involves kind of the biology and ecology of the park and improving the water quality and fishing. And, so, those aren’t funded by the bond projects and from the bond proceeds voters approved. But there was some separate non-voter-approved debt that the county’s issued a couple of times over the last few years that set aside like about $13 million in funding for the, maybe, less sexy projects, right? Kind of more focused on, like I said, improving water quality and oxygen levels in the lake and things like that, which we’ll talk more about.
But that’s kind of where we’re at and how we got to this point now, where, last week, this firm the county hired, Exigo, said, “We’re ready to show you guys sort of the conceptual ideas we put together” for some of the projects I mentioned at the top: a new walking trail – if you go on the walking trail now, I enjoy going to Ascarate Park, but certainly there’s, you see the wall lining the lake is caving in, there’s potholes on the walking trail. It’s not in the best condition. Still heavily-used, right? But, I think that there’s clearly some repairs that need to be made.
And then, also, we have had the issue of the fish kills at the lake, right? Where multiple times over the last decade – I don’t remember the number off the top of my head, I want to say, like, seven or eight different times – there’s been these events where hundreds of fish will die because of these golden algae blooms at the lake where the oxygen levels get really low and the fish essentially get choked off. And, so, that’s pretty unpleasant for people to go to the lake and find all these dead fish.
So, there’s just the issues at the park that I think the county has known about for many years. David Stout, the county commissioner who represents Ascarate Lake, has said, since he entered office in 2015, that was one of his top priorities. And, so, it’s just been something the county’s known about for a while. And now they’re really moving forward with, like I said, about $31 million for some of these entertainment-oriented projects at Ascarate, about $13 million for kind of biology-oriented projects involving Ascarate Lake.
Pablo: Great. You gave us a lot of good information on that, Diego, but I know last week you sat through a county meeting where the conversation ostensibly was about a duck pond, right? But that’s not all that was discussed. Can you kind of take us through that meeting, what some of the, what that presentation sort of entailed? And what county commissioners and county officials see as the Ascarate of the future?
Diego: Yeah. So, for me, it was the first time that I’ve seen these specific projects that will be funded by the bond that voters approved back in 2024. First time I’ve seen the projects really envisioned and discussed in detail. And, so, like I mentioned, some of the stuff involves, like, a new visitor center, which I believe would replace the current – it’s sort of like a snack bar, right? That building that you first (see) when you park at Ascarate Lake and you walk up to the, there’s kind of a boat launch there. They want to replace the current building with a new visitor center. Very cool and fancy, maybe have an exhibit of the history of the park and lake and things like that. So, it’d be a new visitor center.
And, then, kind of elsewhere in the park, you mentioned how there used to be Western Playland, right? And these places with barbecues and things like that. Obviously, since Western Playland moved, part of the park is maybe a little underutilized. And, so, they want to use some of that land to build a new concert venue and fields that I think could be utilized for, obviously, a concert and festival and so forth, but also for sports and recreation and things like that. So, that would be one part of it.
Another part of it is a new walking trail. I think if you go to the park now, sometimes the walking trail can kind of abut – like, there’s roadways and people are kind of concerned about, “Oh, I’m walking on the road and people are speeding through here.” And, so, it’s like, let’s set up a better walking trail, give it a little more space with the roadway, add some more vegetation and trees. That’s a big part. “We want to plant a bunch of trees at the park, but really improve the walking trail.” Like I said, there’s potholes and you’ll find cones along the walking trail to sort of warn people of pitfalls and things like that.
So, really, “Hey, let’s improve the walking trail. Let’s add these new amenities. Let’s do things like that.” And again, those are all voted by voters and approved by voters. And there’s some other more basic things like improving the electrical work, add more lighting, things like that, kind of for safety.
And then there’s also these other projects that were discussed in detail involving the water quality and the fishing at the lake, which I think a lot of people really care about. And I’ll just add a little bit more history. Separate from the 2024 bond that voters approved, about three years ago, the county floated this idea: Why don’t we dredge Ascarate Lake, get rid of all this sediment that has essentially collected at the lake since it opened 80-plus years ago, like you said? Nobody had ever dredged it before.
So, there was kind of all this sediment that had piled up. And that sediment creates a source of nutrients that feed the algae blooms that lead to those fish kills that I mentioned that are really unpleasant events, that have made it so that Texas Parks and Wildlife sort of stocks the lake with fish. They kind of get caught or die off and just kind of repeat the cycle. It’s not a sustainable ecosystem, per se.
And, so, the idea was, “Hey, let’s dredge the lake. Let’s make it deeper. Let’s make it better for fishing,” right? And, so, that was a really long process. The county was talking about putting millions of dollars into that. And I was following that closely. Again, it was, like, 2023. And I got lots of feedback from people: “This is great. We’re going to make the lake deeper. We’re going to make it healthier.” All these things, but better for fishing.
And then, the county paid a different consultant to do that study, take a look at it. And kind of one surprising thing about that was, like, the county didn’t know how deep the lake was. They thought it was like 10, 12 feet deep. And come to find out it was, like, 4, 5, 6, 7 feet deep, depending on the location.
I just thought that was kind of funny. You think this lake that’s existed for so long, we know everything about it. But it seems like there were kind of some questions about how really deep is it? And what’s the condition of the liner at the bottom and blah, blah, blah. Like, all these little details about the lake that I think nobody had really thought about in a long time.
And, so, anyways, it came to where, “All right, are we going to dredge this lake or not?” And the county said after a year of studying it, about two years ago, it said, “Maybe not worth the funding, probably going to cost more than we thought. Let’s go ahead and get off of this dredging idea and see what else we can do to make the lake healthier for fish.”
And, again, another part too is you want reproducing fish because they get bigger, right? Like, who doesn’t want to catch a bigger fish? So, what the county is doing now, (it) scrapped this idea of dredging the lake and kind of making it deeper and all this stuff. What they want to do now that’s kind of interesting, that’s part of these projects we’re talking about going forward, is they’re going to add new water circulators and aerators to kind of get the water moving and get the oxygen circulating throughout the lake.
But something kind of interesting, they want to add a layer of vegetation around the lake edge so that there’s like reeds sticking out of the water and kind of like a wetlands atmosphere, right, or a wetlands environment. And that’s important because that kind of blocks stuff from getting in the water, from running off into the lake. And it also gives fish a place to go. It’s kind of like a little home for them, right? They can go in the reed, they can hide from predators and they can give birth to other fish and have the fish kind of grow in there and have a little bit of a refuge.
And, so, the hope is that will create a cycle of reproduction and kind of a sustainable source of fish that grow larger and provide better fishing. And also makes it so that the lake isn’t – you can kind of see through it better, right? It looks like it’s a little cleaner, it’s a little nicer. And I’ll just say this is something that UTEP actually studied six, seven years ago. They did a study on, like, what would reduce these algae blooms? And they found planting, kind of, reed-like plants in the water actually reduces the nitrates and reduces the conditions that allow for the algae blooms.
All very boring, nerdy science stuff, right? But the bottom line is, “Hey, if we can reduce or minimize these algae blooms that get really toxic, then we can improve the fishing.”
And just last thing here, part of this, you alluded at the beginning to the duck pond. Just last thing I’ll say to this question is the duck pond is – I think a lot of people like going there and feeding the ducks, which you’re not supposed to do, right? Because there’s plenty of naturally-occurring food for the ducks.
And the duck pond has become kind of a gross pool of water, right? Like, not only are there all these ducks that are showing up and a lot of fecal matter and things like that, but also people are feeding the ducks, like, hot dogs and bird seed and things like that. Which then provides a source of nutrients in the duck pond adjacent to the actual lake. And, so, the levels of golden algae blooms in the duck pond are extremely high, super toxic.
And, so, it’s kind of a sad thing, I think, for some people. Because it’s kind of a cool little thing. Hey, take the kids, feed the ducks. The county really doesn’t want you doing that. And, so, that’s why one thing they’re saying, “Look, this isn’t a natural ecosystem. It’s kind of just a little amenity that’s been there since the ’60s. We think we can make better use of the duck pond.” So, that’s why the county is planning on essentially getting rid of that and doing something else with that space.
Pablo: Yeah, good information, Diego. There’s probably people out there who aren’t going to stand for your hate on hot dogs, though, right? Given that Fourth of July is coming up.
Diego: Look, man, I love a glizzy, but I don’t think that it’s the best thing to feed to the ducks over there.
Pablo: Yeah, no, good information. I know you’ve gleaned that from all the meetings that you’ve attended and all the county officials you’ve spoken to, but I also know that you spend a lot of time out at the park just talking to visitors, to residents, to people who frequent the park. From those conversations, what can you tell us about what residents think about Ascarate Park and what they want it to become?
Diego: Yeah, so I mean, like I said, I’ve been following this since 2023, at least, when I first heard about, “Hey, let’s dredge the lake” and stuff. And, so, I started really following this closely, going out to Ascarate periodically just to chat with people and just kind of see their thoughts on, like, “What do you think the park needs?” and things like that.
And my number one takeaway – and I’m sure this isn’t, like, a surprise – but I’ll go there anytime of the year, anytime of day. People are always there at Ascarate. There’s always people fishing. There’s always people hanging out, walking, whatever, like heavily-used park.
And, so, number one, I think it’s important to recognize like – I think, sometimes, we can have kind of this funny image of Ascarate Park in our heads of, like, you’ve got this refinery in the background. It’s kind of the scene, right? And some jokes of, like, are bodies in the lake? Or whatever, right? Like just kind of these urban legend things that I don’t think are true. But just this idea, it’s not the most luxurious place in the world.
But even as we can have that idea in our heads, the fact is people use this lake all the time. It’s a great community resource. And, so, by and large, I don’t think this is a controversial thing, unlike many other things in El Paso, I think people are generally united on, like, “Yeah, let’s put some money in Ascarate, let’s go ahead and make this better, do what we can to use this space that has existed for so long.” We haven’t even mentioned the golf course, right? People love golfing there too. Not that these funds will really go too much to the golf course, but the point is, like, heavily used park.
And I think people are just on board, like, “Yeah, let’s do this.” And when I talk to fishermen especially, they’re just like, “Man, let’s have bigger fish in here and let’s have it so that when I show up here, they’re not dead,” you know? And, so, that’s really what you hear, but heavily-used. “Hey man, anything you can do to put some money in this and make it a better resource for children and so forth, that’s what we want.”
So, it’s kind of interesting how non-controversial it is. Like, “yeah, let’s make this a better place.”
Pablo: Yeah, it is kind of cool to see that it is a shared vision, not just from county leaders, but also from residents, right? I mean, me myself, on a personal level, I enjoy going down there to see boxing matches. Fireworks shows used to be great down there for Fourth of July, since we’re in Fourth of July season right now. The Christmas lights that are out there, just all manner of great things. You mentioned the golf course. There’s also a pool out there. So, just, it’s a really great place, right? And it could be significantly better.
So, it’s cool to see that there’s conversations happening. I don’t know where they’re going to go, but we’ll see. And, so, with that, I know public engagement has been a big part of this issue or a big part of this process. Based on what you’ve learned, do residents feel heard in this process and what are county officials doing to improve that?
Diego: Of course, I could always talk to more people and will talk to more people. So, I don’t want to make it seem like I’ve done a scientific poll. But by and large, I think that the county is being fairly responsive. They’re meeting with the fishing groups. They’re meeting with people that like to use Ascarate Park to run at and do kind of like athletic things. They’re meeting with just sort of anybody involved in the neighborhood.
So, in my mind, the county has sought out the stakeholders for Ascarate, whether people who live nearby or frequent the park for different things. And, so, I feel like the county is trying to be fairly responsive. I think the idea of removing the duck ponds is a little bit controversial.
I think the fishing groups, what I’ve heard, particularly the – shout out to the Make Ascarate Great Again fishing group that I’ve talked to. I think they’re kind of worried that, if the duck pond is closed, if there’s an algae bloom at the main lake, typically the county will stock the small lake so that while they kind of try to remediate and take care of the golden algae bloom in the big lake, people can still fish at the small lake. So, I think there’s kind of a concern, “Hey, our backup option for fishing will be gone.”
So, it’s a little bit controversial, but I think the county’s saying, “Look, this small lake is kind of getting hard to manage, hard to keep clean, hard to even sustain fish at all. And, so, we can make better use of this space and then also take these measures at Ascarate Lake, at the big lake, to prevent those golden algae blooms to the extent possible.”
I mean, golden algae is an issue in the Southwest generally, in West Texas. Like, it’s just something that happens at lakes, usually over winter.
And, so, it’s kind of hard to eradicate. But I think the county’s saying, “Look, we can kind of mitigate the issue with the main lake so that we don’t have to worry about whether the small lake can be a backup option or not.” So, that’s been like one of the few controversies.
The other thing I’ve heard too from people is like, “Hey, county, make sure you’re also focused on signage for vehicles so they’re going the right way and traffic isn’t dangerous.” Things like that. But, like I said, by and large, I think it’s more positive. “Hey, thank you guys for being responsive. This sounds like a good project. Let’s go ahead and make it happen.”
Pablo: I think that’s what makes it different from most of the park stories that we’ve covered before, right? Is that there really does seem to be a unified sense for where we want this place to go. I mean, is that, do you think that’s accurate?
Diego: I would say so. I’m sure you could find some people that don’t want – actually, I know some people that think, “Hey, we (should) just get rid of the golf course and make it this free-flowing meadow kind of thing” or whatever. Like, I’m sure you could find different people with different ideas. But, by and large, I would say that, yeah.
Obviously, voters liked it enough to say, “Hey, we’re willing to issue debt that’s supported by our property taxes and increase taxes a little bit to make this happen.”
And, of course, like I said, Ascarate is only one part of the $95 million in bond funding for county parks. Some of that will go to parks in Fabens and I think in (the) far northwest county. But, by and large, Ascarate is the main park in our region, right? And I think sometimes we don’t realize that. It’s also owned by the county as opposed to the city. And, so, it’s kind of got a different profile for that reason. But I think that there are a lot of people that look at it as, like, the central park for El Paso, right? And so, yeah, I think that’s why it’s garnered some support from voters.
Pablo: Can you tell us – can we look into the future a little bit and tell us some of the key dates that are going to be coming up for us?
Diego: Yeah. So, I believe that – so far, the Exigo architecture firm that the county hired, so far they’ve been, like, conceptual work, right? Like, let’s kind of do renderings, let’s do the early work to understand how this project is going to advance. And then I think by August, they begin the schematic construction drawings.
And so I think at that point– so, the county is going to have, I think they want to have a special meeting at the end of July sometime at the park. Have more people there. Hopefully it’s going to be in the evening so that people can show up and really give some good input on what to focus (on), what to prioritize going forward. So, we could see in maybe a month, month and a half, the county will have a meeting.
And then I think by August, they’re going to say, “OK, this is our plan and we’re going to go from the conceptual idea to let’s get some construction drawings going, let’s make this a reality.” And, so, that’ll happen in the months ahead.
And then I think I said at the top that construction is supposed to start in spring of 2027. So we could see, nine, 10 months from now, some work start. I know that it’ll be phased. So only certain portions of the park are closed. It’s not all going to be closed at once. How disruptive it’ll be for fishermen, I don’t know yet.
As far as, like, are they going to close the lake for fishing? We’ll have to see. So, we could see August a real point where the county commissioners take a vote. “Let’s go ahead and advance with the schematics and drawings and so forth.” And then construction starts next spring. And then, ideally, be wrapped up late 2029 is the goal for the county for now. Of course, I think we’ve all seen some projects get delayed, but tentatively the late 2029 is the completion date.
Pablo: All right. So, I know you’ll be keeping us apprised of all of this as it proceeds, right? But if someone tunes into this conversation, right, and only knows the headlines, what’s the one thing you want to be sure people know about what’s happening at Ascarate right now?
Diego: Yeah. I guess it just strikes me that we could see some really big changes at Ascarate Park in the coming years.
Even the picnic shelters that people go and use and grill on or whatever, like, they’re a little bit aged and due for a touch-up, right? And, so, we could see some new kind of fancy steel structures that kind of blend in with the desert environment. Some new vegetation, new trees, like I said, to provide more shade. New fishing docks or piers. The vegetation around the lake, maybe better fishing.
And then, in addition to that, kind of getting back to the events that you mentioned, right, like where there’s more concerts at the park and more festivals and just big events, kind of bring Ascarate more back to life, maybe like when Western Playland was there. That was before my time, right? I was more familiar with the Western Playland that exists today.
But I think that’s the idea, is not to make Ascarate great again per se, but just update it, right? And I’ll say too, I mean, of course we’ve talked about the unifying nature is cool, but just kind of envisioning like, man, whole new visitor center, whole new walking trail, whole new festival area. It could look like a really different park in a few years. And, so, I’m really curious to see how it plays out and just see like, does the county take these funds, deploy them efficiently and effectively, and get these projects done on time? It’ll be important, but I’m definitely excited to see what Ascarate Park could look like in a few years.
Pablo: Who knows, could be the home of the El Paso Matters 9.15K, right? Which, by the way, shameless plug, it’s coming up September 19th, and the information is on our website if you’d like to know more.
Diego: Yeah, I think they talked about wanting to accommodate runners and things like that, athletes. So, maybe we could have a run there. We’ll see.
Pablo: Yeah, absolutely.
Diego, thank you so much for sharing all this information with us. I know you’re going to keep us informed in the days and months ahead. Always, always a pleasure to talk to you.
Diego: Appreciate it, Pablo. We’ve got to go hang out at Ascarate sometime.
Pablo: Definitely.
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