In November, the Kingwood Service Association (KSA) Parks Committee agreed to commit the KSA Parks Foundation to oversee and manage “Trees for Kingwood,” a new, long-term multi-organizational community program.
Trees for Kingwood is being organized to revitalize Kingwood’s forested trails, parks and open spaces. In October, Dee Price of Sand Creek had advised the committee that the Kingwood Trails Associations were interested in establishing such a program to promote and coordinate tree planting projects throughout the community, including the raising of funds needed to conduct such activity. Price updated the committee on their initial Nov. 2 organizational meeting and pointed out many organizations were represented. They included people from Harris County Precinct 4, Congressman Dan Crenshaw’s office, Trees for Houston, the Humble Independent School District, the various Kingwood Trails Associations and a lot of community homeowner associations.
“This is like a huge project and everybody has different thoughts,” Price said.
“The group agreed to establish four subcommittees to work the different aspects of adding trees to Kingwood,” Price said. She briefly described them as the buying control, forest management, drainage and resources subcommittees.
Chris Manthei, chairman of the Parks Committee, said that as a stand-alone 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, the Parks Foundation is the perfect vehicle to enable the raising of tax-deductible contributions to improve and replenish the forested areas of Kingwood’s parks and trails that are a hallmark of the community.
The committee agreed unanimously.
As a result, the KSA Parks Foundation will serve as the overall contact point and administrator of Trees for Kingwood. It will fall on the foundation, which usually is made up of Parks Committee volunteers, to administer the contacts, correspondence and to work through various work projects as they arise. Manthei asked the committee members to consider becoming more involved in the foundation as there are currently several of unfilled positions because it has not been active recently. Price also explained volunteering for positions on the foundation is not limited to the Parks Committee. The committee is open to others who may be interested. She encouraged the members to ask their community associations if there might be others interested in volunteering.
In other business, Ethel McCormick of Kingwood Association Management, confirmed her fears expressed in October about increases in feral hog activity as winter approaches.
“We have activity again. We had reports in the Kings Point area, Royal Shores had a report and Sand Creek has had three reports,” McCormick said. She noted the hog hunters have recently captured seven. She also said her office is now beginning to get more reports, including some yard damage. Several members added that they had personally seen other activity not reported in the KSA Hog Report.
Dee Price, as steward for River Grove Park, reported the boat dock rebuilding project is well underway. She provided pictures of the ongoing construction which includes the replacement of the dock’s pilings with new pilings driven into the river bottom. Price said she expected it to be open to the public within the next two weeks. The new dock represents a major improvement for both boat owners and other Kingwood residents who enjoy River Grove Park in general.
KSA Parks Committee meetings are open to the public and are normally held on the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the South Woodland Hills Community Room, 2030 Shadow Rock Drive in Kingwood. Contact KSA at 281-358-5192 the day before planning to attend to confirm it is a Zoom meeting or not and arrange for joining it.
