Photo By Samantha Harms | Sierra Beach at Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area will open every day as an unmanned...... read more read more
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FORT CAVAZOS, Texas — After being closed for three years due to a lifeguard shortage, Sierra Beach at Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area will reopen June 3 as an unmanned beach here.
The “swim at your own risk” beach will be open to the public dawn to dusk every day.
“It will be an unguarded waterfront,” Summer Inwood, Sports, Fitness and Aquatics chief with Fort Cavazos Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, shared. “So, people can come out here and enjoy the lake at their own leisure, but at their own risk as well. There will be life jackets available if people feel more comfortable with them, but it will be unguarded, just like the normal lake experience that you go to at Temple or Belton or Lake Travis.”
The opening of Sierra Beach comes as just a small part of the “BLORA re-birth,” as Inwood deemed it.
At the beach itself, DFMWR staff are currently in the process of repainting the picnic areas on the beach and railings, installing beach volleyball courts and renovating the snack shop.
BLORA itself is seeing the Warrior Adventure Quest and Adventure Programs, which are currently open to Soldiers for readiness, move back into its footprint. DFMWR is working in phases to redo the mountain bike trails, to convert an old archery range into a backpacking and camping location, to install pickle ball and basketball courts, soccer goals and outdoor fitness equipment, renovate bathrooms, reopen the ropes course program and expand the usage of paintball fields.
“Our main goal is just to really get our families and the community to come out here for recreation time on the weekends and different things like that, and fill it back up the way it was years ago,” Thomas Kenney, outdoor recreation chief, DFMWR. “The goal is to just to breath life back into BLORA. I think that’s what’s important. … A lot of people don’t even know that BLORA even exists.”
Kenney encourages visitors to continue visiting BLORA as things will continue to improve throughout the various implementation phases, as the DFMWR team continues “working very hard on it, non-stop.”
To kick off the summer season, FMWR is hosting Beach Blast at Sierra Beach from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 3. Attendees will be able to enjoy swimming, inflatable waterslides, corn hole, a sand volleyball tournament & pick-up games, giant Jenga, a Water Wars balloon slingshot game, a giant inflatable zipline and static displays.
The Adventure Program team will offer kayak and paddle board demonstrations; the Casey Memorial Library will have children’s activities from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will be on hand to distribute water safety information.
In addition, the snack shop will be open for purchasing food and non-alcoholic drinks. A beer truck will also have beer, for 21 years and older, for purchase.
As a reminder, the on-going year-round park activities including camping, fishing, pavilion rentals, playgrounds, sport courts, boat ramp, bait sales, mountain bike rentals and equestrian trail rides are always available.
“(This effort) has been really good to be able to utilize all resources within MWR that (makes) us a better installation, (an) installation of choice and grow our operations; (that’s) what we’re trying to do and really put some love back into BLORA,” Kenney expressed. “It’s a beautiful resort. … It’s been really good and I think you’ll really see that our leadership team is behind us on this project out here and the benefits that it’s going to bring to the Fort Cavazos community in the future.”
For more information on BLORA or Beach Blast, call 254-287-2523 or visit https://cavazos.armymwr.com/calendar/event/beach-blast/6008398/79743.
| Date Taken: | 05.25.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.07.2023 17:57 |
| Story ID: | 459446 |
| Location: | FORT CAVAZOS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 13 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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