CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Weather is having an impact on the spring season with the Kanawha County Department of Parks and Recreation. Heavy rainfall and three floods has caused a major setback to the kickoff of the golf season in the county’s parks.
“It’s slowing down work. It’s slowing down grass growth. It’s slowing down golfers playing,” said Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Hutchinson of the county’s Big Bend Golf Course which lies along the banks of Coal River near Tornado. “We’ve already had water up on number 7 and a little bit around 18 twice. It’s really frustrating.”
Big Bend is always in the path of high water when the Coal River comes out of its banks and so far this year that’s been three times. Despite those setbacks the heavy rain has put a damper on a lot of park activities.
“The amount of rain we’re getting everywhere, not just at Big Bend, but all over the valley is slowing us down considerably,” Hutchinson said. “The ground is totally saturated. There’s probably more water in the water table now than there has been in the last 10 or 15 years.”
Hutchinson said there isn’t much you can do but wait for the water to recede, then evaluate what needs to be done to quickly repair the damage.
One parks project which has managed to sidestep weather problems is the new bridge across the Elk River to form the new main entrance to the park.
“It looks close, the contractor moves at a good pace,” Hutchinson said. “I’d say by no later than the second week of May the decking will be poured on the bridge and that will be a significant change to Coonskin Park.”
Hutchinson said the contractor is still on schedule to have the bridge completed by October, but could be done much sooner.