Garland's Downtown Square renovation project wraps, city prepares for its reopening
GARLAND (CBSNewsTexas.com) — The City of Garland is preparing to reopen Downtown Square as its renovation project finally wrapped this week.
Ahead of the reopening, CBS News Texas got a preview with a special guest—the city's former mayor, Charles Clack.
"There was a well right here in the center, and so they would pull their horses in there and water their horses and that's why we had the water fountain," Clack said.
He described what he once knew as the Downtown Square that he first helped renovate when he was in office back in 1978.
Wednesday, Clack walked down memory lane and then got an exclusive look at the new upgrades.
"We had trees around it, just open spaces," he said. "It's basically the same size that it is today except it's just a little different."
Clack and current Garland Mayor Scott LeMay soon realized how many similarities still exist.
"We're replacing all of our park, playground equipment," Mayor LeMay said. "It has survived all these years but we are updating all of that playground equipment."
There is now a new pavilion, event lawn, play areas and more. Now, all of this is rejuvenating the vision Clack once had for the city.
"This is fabulous," he said. "This is what we had envisioned, too. To get people downtown and bring their families and shop."
The city will host an official reopening—an all-day celebration of the square—Saturday, starting at 10 a.m.