In its first vote during its Feb. 21 meeting, the CityCouncil voted 6-1 to name the park Troxell Park, after Randy Troxell, the city’s former assistant director of parks and recreation who retired in October 2020 after 30 years in the position.
“I felt there was no one better to have that park named after than Randy Troxell, who spent over 30 years here with the city,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Boney, who made the initial motion.
To name the park, Missouri City followed a process outlined in its code of ordinances for naming public parks, buildings, streets and programs, said Jason Mangum, the city’s director of parks and recreation, responding to an inquiry from Council Member Vashaundra Edwards.
A request for the Troxell Park name was submitted to the city secretary, who forwarded it to the parks and recreation department, Mangum said. From there, the Missouri City Parks Board held a public hearing on Feb. 10 and gave a positive recommendation. The item was then forwarded to City Council.
Still, Edwards, the one dissenting council member for the name change, said she would have preferred getting additional public input before changing the name of a park.
“I do think as a parks department, as well as my colleagues and I, should go the extra mile by having some type of survey given to the community and allowing them to have some type of input, considering they are the taxpayers and the ones ultimately utilizing that property,” Edwards said.
Mangum clarified that though the maintenance of the park, once completed, will be funded through taxpayer money, the park is being funded completely by the developer.
When completed, Troxell Park will host several amenities, including a large shade structure, a grill station with adjacent gathering space, synthetic turf game lawn, a playground and a boardwalk crossing, according to agenda documents.
In addition, through a pathway along Mustang Bayou, Troxell Park will be connected by a bridge to the city’s Community Park, at 1700 Glenn Lakes Lan, Missouri City.
“I’ve served on the parks board; I’ve seen the commitment from Randy [Troxell] and that he’s gone above and beyond,” Mayor Robin Elackatt said to the parks department. “I’m glad you’ve gone through the process entailed within our ordinances so this way even in the future if we have parks that are named throughout the city if council or people wanted to make those changes, they can follow our ordinances and make a comment.”
