Thank-yous flow at Mission Reach

Kayaker Elsa Perez navigates the chute near Padre Park as people celebrate the completion and grand opening of the Mission Reach Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation Project along the San Antonio River. Kayaker Elsa Perez navigates the chute near Padre Park as people celebrate the completion and grand opening of the Mission Reach Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation Project along the San Antonio River. Photo: Photos By Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News Photo: Photos By Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Thank-yous flow at Mission Reach 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

The grand opening of the completed Mission Reach Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation Project saw its giddy creators dispense kudos by the dozen Saturday as bikers, hikers and kayakers enjoyed the new linear park along the San Antonio River.

Speaker after speaker hailed the project as a tribute to the teamwork of Bexar County, San Antonio, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the San Antonio River Authority and others.

“There are so many people to thank,” said County Judge Nelson Wolff, emcee at the kickoff event for the project he called the nation's largest urban river restoration initiative.

The county pitched in $208 million and the city $78 million toward the 8-mile stretch of trails, picnic areas and other attractions that are already a hit with users.

“I'm glad San Antonio is making places for us to kayak,” said Kristin Koch, 35, who paddled by the festivities with son Edison, 2, in her lap.

County Commissioner Paul Elizondo said the vision of creating a “people place” along the neglected river south of downtown was “a far-off dream” when he took office in 1982.

“We kept talking about this project, but it wasn't until Nelson Wolff became county judge that we got it done,” he said.

Dog walkers including Zachary Serwer paused to listen to the amplified acknowledgments to various groups and people who toiled on the project that's expected to breathe new life into the South Side.

“I like all the pavilions, the picnic tables, drinking fountains,” said Serwer, 45, who brought his golden retriever Brodie to the event at the Mission Park pavilions.

Six-year-old Charlie Guerrero, eager to leap on nearby rocks, called the 70-minute ceremony exhausting.

“This is sounding a little like the Academy Awards up here with all the thank-yous,” conceded Irby Hightower, co-chair of the River Oversight Committee.

He said the citizens group seated in 1998 helped convince local officials to drop plans to build concrete-lined channels, and to instead create a natural setting along the river which, for too long, was “an ugly and unstable earthen channel filled with construction debris.”

The newly landscaped banks bear little resemblance to the shoreline that Adolfo S. Gomez roamed as a child.

“It was like a little jungle, where we made our trails” recalled Gomez, 72. “We would fish, hunt and swim.”

A standing ovation greeted Hightower's committee co-chair, former Mayor Lila Cockrell, who credited the project's success to passage in 2008 of a tax increase on hotel stays and car rentals, which helped fund the project.

“Thank you to the citizens of San Antonio,” Cockrell said. “It was your backing ... your love for this project, that carried us through.”

The grand opening was delayed because of damage from flooding in May, on which the project's contractor, H.B. Zachry Corp., is still making repairs.

Bicyclist Greg Hammer called the upgrades “incredible” and predicted they'll spur the opening of concessions and other riverside businesses.

“I'm most interested to see how the community changes,” said Hammer, 45.

The individual receiving the most praise Saturday, SARA General Manager Suzanne Scott, isn't resting on her laurels when it comes to river improvement projects.

“What we've accomplished is phenomenal, but we've got more to do,” she said.

zeke@express-news.net