Local News

Vineyards Campground And Cabins To Reopen

November 23, 2015 / 6:00 AM CST / CBS Texas

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GRAPEVINE (KRLD-AM) - This past spring was one that no one in North Texas will ever forget.

Nonstop torrential rains turned roads into rivers and transformed parking lots into lakes.

It especially did a number on lakeside businesses, many of which were forced to close for months due to the massive flooding.

Among them is the Vineyards Campground and Cabins in Grapevine. The popular campground has been shuttered since May 22nd, when it found itself completely submerged.

Contractors and volunteers have since been busy restoring the site; and tomorrow, the campground will reopen for the first time in six months.

"Our guests have been anxiously awaiting," says Kevin Mitchell, Grapevine's director of parks and recreation. "We're at 100 percent occupancy. They're ready to come back, and we're ready for them to come back."

Mitchell says it's been a tough year in every way.

"It's been tough both economically and from a standpoint that people have not been able to come to the lake and enjoy the recreational opportunities that we provide here at the Vineyards Campground," he says.

When campers return, they will see some remnants of this spring's floods. Waterlines on many structures are still visible, giving a very strong reminder of exactly how high the floodwaters were.

But it also gave the city an opportunity to make some significant improvements.

"We've taken some of the older asphalt sites, leveled them and made them concrete," says Randy Sell, Grapevine's lake parks and events manager. "We've upgraded our WiFi system, so it should be one of the fastest in the country. . .as well as we're installing cable TV to every site. We haven't had that before."

Also, there will be a new, bigger pavilion to replace the original one that was destroyed in the floods. Construction will get underway this winter.

The city did, however, manage to save the cabins.

"The cabins are designed where we can move them off-site, similar to a mobile home," Mitchell says. "So we were able to remove them, wheel them to an off-site location, store them out of harm's way. And then we brought them back on site and reinstalled them for our guests to enjoy."

Sell says crews have been feverishly working to get the site ready for tomorrow's reopening.

"There may just be a couple minor inconveniences," Sell says. "Overall, the functionality of the campground, the site, everything like that should be fine."