Hey, you Texas Fretters!

[oldguy]

I was wondering if any of you had ever been to one of these parks.
http://www.schlitterbahn.com/
If not, have you ever even heard of them?
The reason I ask is, if winter ever gets over with here, our company is supposed to start Phase 1 construction on the one in Kansas City, Kansas.
The project is supposed to take 2.5 years to complete. And is supposed to be the biggest/best of all their parks (so far).
Now, I know Texas is big, but on the remote chance one of you (or a friend/relative/in-law/outlaw) has been to one, what did you think of it?

[PAPPY]

I have been to the one in Dallas/Ft.Worth although it's been several years ago. It was a great place to be in the hot summertime and a family friendly place. The younger generation seem to really enjoy it. I say it is a thumbs up place.

[Childbride]

o, yeah. at least, i know about the one in new braunfels, i have kin about 30 min from there. used to drive by it all the time.

we never went there b/c we preferred to actually just tube in the river proper instead of going to the waterpark w/the crowds.

extremely popular park, busy all season. kids love it, in fact, several people from around here make yearly summer pilgrimages with their kids...

[oldguy]

Pappy, CB, thanks for the replies........... I've met the owner, his son, some cousins, and they seem like very nice people........they also stress the family theme, and so far the land (350+acres) we're working on has been well managed. By that I mean the least amount of trees removed as possible to work around the design blueprints, those trees are being used as lumber for later stage design, even small limbs are to be used as mulch in this and other parks.
The owner and his son say "We don't waste anything-we use it."
Refreshing when the usual 100-400 acre site prep. mentality is " tear it all out, burn it, and we'll start from scratch"..... I don't like that approach.
These folks seem very concerned about the environment, the workers, safety, and making this project a fun place. Hope it stays that way.

[sunvalleylaw]

Good for you OG for having that attitude. One reason I left my home state was what seemed to be a massive shift to the "mow it all down and replant with a sapling or two" attitude.

[just strum]

When we built our house the builder wanted to clear all the trees, but we removed only a minimal amount and they were pretty sickly looking. I don't have a lot of trees, maybe 20 large ones (two story house tall or more) and probably 40 small ones, most natural to the site.

I see the builders come in and just tear everything out and it's sad. About 3 miles down the road a big developer cleared a large wooded area (I would guess 300+ acres), put up one house and about 200 feet of road. About a week after the first house went up, they stopped. The house is vacant, the woods are now a dirt field of weeds and no one has come back probably for 4 or 5 years.

[oldguy]

I've seen that, Strum, and it's sickening.......
I might add most of the time it happens it's companies who sign with the construction contractors (us), where they have "great" bank financing and overextend themselves on a poorly researched project, blow all the money on nonsensical ideas, or wining and dining other fat cats, put on a good front, and lose their a$$ before the project's completed. Then they'll try and weasel out of the contract, we end up going to court to recoup our losses, and nobody "wins" in the end. That's a major reason construction costs are so high. Once our job is done and they decide they can't afford the builders to put up the houses, the project sits idle, they scramble to find another buyer to complete it, and move on. Kind of like gambling with someone else's money........
I sort of addressed some of this in the "Do you love your job?" thread.