Jim Hogg Park closed as city workers clean up from January ice storm

RUSK – A local city park named for the state’s first native-born governor has been closed temporarily as Rusk city workers remove debris remaining from last month’s ice storm.

City Manager Bob Goldsberry said that while workers have been clearing what they are able from Jim Hogg Park, located off of US Highway 84 West, “we have limbs and treetops that have not come out of the trees that are still hanging, making it dangerous.”

Because there are a number of taller trees damaged during the late January ice storm, and because the city lacks proper manpower and equipment, contractors will probably be called in to complete clean-up, making it impossible to give an estimate when the park will reopen.

Meanwhile, with exception of the park pavilion that had a tree fall through it, structures at the park were largely undamaged from storm debris. 

“We are trying to get the park open as quickly as we can,” Goldsberry said, pointing out crews have been focusing on removing debris from throughout the city to allow residents to safely get around. 

“Residents have been good about piling up brush, but they’re getting impatient with how long it’s taking to clean up,” he said. “Our street crews are working as fast and as hard as they can.”

As of Feb. 26, workers have taken “a couple hundred dump truck loads of debris” to burn piles at the edge of the city, and Goldsberry said he expects to see many more loads delivered there. Cherokee County remains under a burn ban.

“We got hit pretty hard” by the ice storm, he said.