After four years of earmarking funds for improvements to Broussard Community Park, construction on the city park in Tomball began in March. Assistant City Manager David Esquivel said he estimates the park will reopen to the public in early fall. Tomball City Council members unanimously awarded the construction contract to Diffco LLC on March 19, allotting 120 days for basic site improvements totaling $853,616. “They are in charge of doing all the grading work out there, which means [constructing a] detention pond, grading swells, the [soccer] fields themselves, parking lots [and] entryway, and they’re going to regrade the fishing pond,” Esquivel said. Diffco’s work is the first phase of planned construction improvements to Broussard Park, which will feature soccer fields, a fishing pond, walking trails, workout stations and restrooms, Esquivel said. City documents also propose a volleyball court, picnic areas, disc golf course and sensory garden. Land for the 14-acre city park, located at 1414 E. Hufsmith Road, was donated in July 2014 by Humana Inc. CEO Bruce Broussard. The KaBOOM community partner program as well as local volunteers constructed a playground on the land in December 2014, but no significant improvements have been made to the land since that time. Although Tomball has allotted $1.425 million since fiscal year 2014-15 for Broussard Park improvements, according to budget information, construction on the park could not begin until utilities were extended to Hufsmith Road, Esquivel said. Crews began installing a water line along Hufsmith and Zion roads this year. “With the water line that we’re putting in, now we’re going to be able to support when we put the [soccer] fields in with the sod and the seeding [of them],” Esquivel said. “All the other stuff like the walking trails [and] the workout stations that are going to be placed along the trail [are] going to come right after we get done with this first phase.” Harris County Precinct 4 and the city of Tomball are working to establish an interlocal agreement to maintain the park and construct walking trails, as Precinct 4’s Samuel Matthews Park is located adjacently, Precinct 4 Parks Director Dennis Johnston said. The county’s four-person staff charged with upkeep at Samuel Matthews Park will also care for Broussard Park. “Our strengths are obviously trail building. We have our own in-house trail-building crew,” Johnston said. “The city of Tomball will develop the park. When the time is right, we’ll go in and do the trails and make the connection to the existing trails we have at Matthews.” The city is also looking to partner with a soccer association to run a program out of the park and care for the soccer fields, Esquivel said. “We will always have a component that it will be for public use,” he said. “When it’s not for that [association], it is definitely open for public use.” Esquivel said once the grass begins to grow for the soccer fields—which will allow various age levels of play and include a multipurpose field—the city plans to reopen the park for public use, likely around the start of school this fall. “You’re going to start seeing a whole lot more activity out there now that we have this base layer done,” Esquivel said. “Then, all the little stuff is going to start popping up, and it should get done pretty quick[ly] from there.”