Cody Park takes preventative measures against floodwaters

NORTH PLATTE - Water levels along the North Platte River are expected to increase starting Friday and reach flood stage of six feet at some point.

In many cases, Cody Park is not spared from flooding.

City Parks Director Lyle Minshull said they’ve been pumping water out of the pond for the past nine years to prevent areas such as the concessions, rides and animal pens from flooding, especially during a heavy rain event.

“So what we do is we pump down the water in our big pond,” Minshull said. “When it does that it lowers the ground water level so the water goes away faster when we have rains.”

Minshull said when the flood in 2011 occurred, a large portion of the park was inaccessible due to the high floodwaters from the North Platte River.

“Lake McConaughy was almost over full in a sense so they had to release a lot of water for a long time,” he said.

The City also rebuilt a portion of the bank along the North Platte River to restore the area that was washed out from floodwaters.

“We would lose the trees if we didn’t do anything and we also had memorial benches,” said Minshull. “So what we did is we applied for a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to reclaim some of the ground and used riprap on the edge of the river in order to reclaim what we had there from Cody Park originally.”

The public is advised to stay out of the taped area until further notice.