After aldermen considered closing access to Salado Creek on Village property between I-35 and Main Street, they will discuss other measures to address issues stemming from the heavy use of the property that was once called the Village Green.

The board will meet 5:30 p.m. Aug. 11 with Salado Creek and springs as a workshop topic, followed by possible action items on “Springs and Salado Creek-related issues” that include water testing, grilling/use of open flame, litter, charging fees and parking in the Village parking lot behind old Sugar Shack building.

Aldermen discussed in workshop session testing Salado Creek waters for fecal coliform. If the city is going to do this, direction will have to come from the board of aldermen.

At one time, Salado Creek preservation committee volunteers tested the water at eight locations of Salado for indicators such as pH, phosphorous, fecal coliform. However, the testing program ended more than a decade ago when the Brazos River Authority no longer ran the tests themselves on water collected by volunteers. Salado Village Voice published those results in the newspaper on a regular basis for more than a decade.

Test results for fecal coliform counts were historically high during the summer months, when the flow of Salado Creek was lower than the rest of the year. Because fecal coliform is a non-point source pollutant, everything from beavers to bats to cattle production west of Salado to the rest areas south of Salado to people playing in the creek were cited as the cause of the higher fecal coliform counts.

Aldermen may also take action on the use of open grills and barbecue pits that visitors to the creek — both at the Stagecoach dam and Pace Park — have brought with them.

Other parks in Bell and Williamson Counties have regulations on the use of grills and barbecue pits, but at the same time provide barbecue pits to visitors. The City of Belton provides barbecue pits and allows the use of grills, but requires that coals be extinguished and taken out of the park.

Local lake parks (Stillhouse, Belton and Georgetown) are regulated by the Corps of Engineers. Many of the parks provide camping areas, barbecue pits and fire pits, allowing campfires when there is no local burn ban in effect. The Lake parks systems also have a $5 per vehicle day use charge.

In a search of the websites for Stillhouse Lake, Lake Belton, Lake Georgetown, City of Belton, City of Harker Heights, City of Temple and City of Georgetown park facilities, Salado Village Voice could find no “parking fees” except for overflow parking at campsites.

In our survey of local parks, facility fees range from $25 to $250 (for ticketed commercial events) for park facilities.

Aldermen will also consider addressing litter issues along the Creek. In early July, Eagle Disposal brought five large garbage cans to the area at Salado Creek west of the Main Street bridge, as well as two port-a-potties.

Those cans are emptied at the end of the day on Saturdays and again on Mondays.

City administrator Kim Foutz told Salado Village Voice recently that city maintenance staff has pulled more than 10 large bags of garbage from the downtown location over a weekend.

Private dumpsters belonging to retail businesses are also catching some of the overflow, as evidenced by the filled-beyond-the-brim dumpsters near Royal and Main.

Issues of alcohol usage at Salado Creek and the possible liability to the Village has also caused concern for local officials.

By rule, alcohol is not allowed in Pace Park, nor are glass containers.

Most of the parks that we surveyed have leash laws in place, as well. They also ask that pet owners clean up after their pets. Parks with athletic fields restrict pets from those areas.

Salado has leash laws in place for the Village, as well, but no restrictions on animals in the creek. However, a proposed Salado salamander ordinance would have restricted swimming and pets from entering the creek along much of the stream in downtown Salado.

Entering the creek would have been restricted except in Pace Park.

Despite the rules for Pace Park prohibiting alcohol and glass containers, the property west of Main Street is not part of Pace Park. It originally was part of the Stagecoach Inn property until then-owner Morris Foster peeled about two acres of the property including the parking lot and the 40+ year old sewer treatment plant off when he sold the restaurant and motel business to Terry Potts.

Stagecoach Inn was given the right to use the sewer by Foster in an agreement between him and Potts for Potts to operate the wastewater system for the other clients.

The other clients were retail businesses along Main Street south of Salado Creek and some on Royal Street.

In 2014, Foster donated the wastewater treatment plant and property to the Village of Salado.