Construction on the Ol’ Fishin’ Hole at Fuji Park is finally getting underway. I’ve been hearing about this project for years and years, how they wanted to add a pond to Fuji where people could sit on a dock and fish. Now it’s finally coming true; bulldozers have been on the site for a couple of weeks, clearing brush and moving dirt. News Carson City has video of the excavator digging the first holes to get the pond started.
The location of the pond is less than ideal, though. The pond is going in where the old racetrack used to be, right next to the highway behind Bodines. This is the complete opposite end of the park from where the grassy areas and the playground are. If you were going to put a pond anywhere, you’d think you would want it to be part of the rest of the park. Then visitors could leave their car in one spot and meander around, from the picnic area, to the grass, to the playground, to the pond. You’d have an actual unified park, with a pond. But the way they’re building it you have to make a choice when you go to Fuji, and decide if you want to go to the park, or to the pond. And it’s not super easy to drive or walk between them.
So maybe it was just a matter of the space available, and there was nowhere else to put such a large pond. But we’re ending up with a park that feels like it’s not very well planned out, like they just dropped things wherever they would fit. Here’s the playground, here’s the rodeo stadium, here’s the pond, here’s the indoor pavilion. All scattered every which way. Fuji Park needed a more firm master plan in place 40 years ago when they built it, and now we’re all paying the price.
So this pond will be good for those who are into fishing, and the city is going to keep it stocked with plenty of trout. But it’s not going to be great for strolling around like it could have been if it was closer to the rest of the park.
Your beef makes no sense. The pond is less than a quarter mile away from the rest of the park- an easy walk.