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We are pleased to announce that Paul Prine for Mayor and Matt Frazier for City Council District 6 has graciously accepted our invitation to the upcoming “Meet & Greet” at The Park. Regrettably, Councilman Woods has had to decline our invitation due to prior commitments and will be unable to attend.
As seating is limited, we kindly encourage attendees to bring a lawn chair if you plan to stay for the duration of the event. Light refreshments will be provided at the pavilion.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Paul Prine for accommodating us in his busy schedule on such short notice. He will attend for about an hour. Thank you, Chief Prine, for your generosity and support. We look forward to seeing all our candidates and enjoying a wonderful gathering together!
Best regards,
Sherry Lynn Gros, President
HPca, Inc
August 2021 brought hurricane Ida and the collapse of the dam at Optimist Lake on Milkhouse Creek. All efforts to save it failed destroying contiguous wetlands and the lakeside community activities. Today Highland Park Community Association is working to save and restore our neighborhood parks that lay around the lake land. We believe if we restore the parks then, with proper management going forward, the community and the waterside resort will return.
Highland Park Community Association operates the administrative wing of the nearly 100 year old non-profit in Mobile, AL We operate under Title 10 — CORPORATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS. Chapter 3A — NONPROFIT CORPORATIONS and The Clean Water Act of 1972. Our waters are multijurisdictional. HPca, Inc is responsible for three easements, two parks and a 25 acre lake and spillway, on the Milkhouse Creek part of the Dog River Watershed. “Encouraging Responsible Watershed and Lakeside Management” since 1967 HPca sponsors the Highland Park Review newspaper, The Highland Park Community Gardeners group, and the Purple Martin Migration Station at Optimist Lake. HPca, Inc is environmentally conscious, protective, and defends our civic space birdsong sanctuary with every legal tool available.
Highland Park Community Association was Incorporated on April 24,1967 to manage Optimist Lake dam and area parks. The 25 acre lake is a reservoir of the Milkhouse Creek that flows from Zeigler Blvd into the Halls Mill Watershed to the Dog River, onto Mobile Bay, then into the Gulf of America f/k/a Gulf of Mexico. Milkhouse Creek is State Waters as described under the Alabama State Constitution also under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, WOTUS, via the Clean Water Act. Optimist Lake Dam provides a buffer for downstream wetlands and a sediment pond for 1445 acres of local area underground drainage provided by MAWSS and City of Mobile stormwater runoff from the surrounding area. Highland Park owns two parks and three easements relating to the lake and dam. Highland Park Community Association run by its Board of Directors must maintain and use the park lands for its intended purpose or the property will revert to the State of Alabama. If left to ruin, and abandonment, the land will be sold by the State Department of Revenue, gobbled up by greedy developers to privatize and capitalize on this environmental neighborhood treasure.
Optimist Lake at Milkhouse Creek in Mobile Alabama , is a reservoir of the Milkhouse Creek System that converges with Halls Mill Creek watershed flows into the Dog River then to Mobile Bay and finally into the Gulf of America f/k/a Gulf of Mexico. For almost 100 years Optimist Lake provided a buffer zone for Federally protected wetlands. Since the collapse of the dam those wetlands are filling in with silt and pollutants from upstream. The waterfowl are gone. The lake is gone. In time the Greater Mobile area will realize the important role that Lake Optimist Dam served this community and will come to restore the area. In the meantime we are managing the parks, cleaning up dead wood, protecting the land from outsider takeover, and working to get grants to restore the creek banks, the park, support local bird watching in their natural habitat, and building community gardening activities at the park. We ask that you support us in any way you are able. Thank you.