Friends, family and community members will gather at Willow Waterhole on Monday, Oct. 17, to honor Bob Schwartz for his many years of community service by naming the gazebo at Willow Waterhole in his honor.
Festivities will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the gazebo, 5200 Dryad, for the official naming. Then attendees will move to The Gathering Place, 5310 South Willow, for refreshments.
Bob Schwartz was a founding member of the Brays Bayou Association and Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy. He has tirelessly advocated and promoted flood control projects in the Brays Watershed, helping in the development of Project Brays and the Willow Waterhole Detention Project.
Hurricane Alicia hit in 1983 followed by a major storm causing I ,800 homes to flood in Meyerland. Schwartz and other community leaders focused on the need to reduce the risk of flooding and created the Brays Bayou Association in 1984. Schwartz served as an early president and currently serves as president. BBA’s accomplishments include the 1988 approval of a $250M Harris County flood control bond issue.
HCFCD and BBA made the case to U.S. Congressman Ken Bentsen that if flood control projects were handled by local authorities these projects could be done in half the time and half the cost. The result of these efforts was the Water Resources Development Act of 1996. Also included in the Act was language permitting aesthetics to be incorporated into flood control projects.
