Alachua Conservation Trust and the Suwannee River Water Management District held a ribbon cutting for the opening of the J. H. Anderson Jr. Memorial Park in Gilchrist County on June 1, 2019. The park will ensure that 175 acres on the Suwannee will not be developed and thus will protect Rock Bluff Springs.
The ribbon is cut: left to right, unknown, unknown, Todd Gray, Tom Kay, Eric Draper, Kevin Brown, Hugh Thomas, Gary Jones, unknown, Virgina Sanchez, Unknown.
Eric Draper, Director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Recreation and Parks, was present, as well as Tom Kay, Executive Director of the Alachua Conservation Trust, and Hugh Thomas, Executive Director of the Suwannee River Water Management District.
Georgia Schemitz, Pete Butt Steve Minnis
Hugh Thomas Aline Kazokas, Mike Kern
Gilchrist County was represented by Commissioner Todd Gray. Several SRWMD staff and board members were also seen in the crowd, including Robin Lamb, Steve Minnis, Tom Mirti, Gary Jones, Kevin Brown, and Virginia Sanchez. Environmentalists Georgia Schemitz, Pete Butt, Aline Kazokas and Mike Kern were also present.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
