Fort Worth\u2019s efforts to find funding for a pilot park ranger program are on pause again after this summer\u2019s effort to secure funding from the city\u2019s Crime Control and Prevention District<\/a> board for fiscal 2027 didn\u2019t get through.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did not get approved, so this is not moving forward,\u201d Teresa Thomason, the parks department\u2019s deputy director, said in an interview with the Fort Worth Report.<\/p>\n The parks department has looked for ways to fund the pilot in recent years, but none have succeeded.<\/p>\n The program would aim to boost public safety, compliance and visitors\u2019 experience, and help reduce nonviolent crime and police calls from parks, city staff told members of the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Advisory Board at its July 22 meeting<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s proposal is for a four-person team, with one supervisor and three rangers, that would cover parks seven days per week, focusing on high-incident areas, staff said.<\/p>\n The pilot would cost an estimated $810,617 for personnel, equipment including vehicles and possibly body cameras, and training, staff said.<\/p>\n The pilot would last for one year. Rangers would not be sworn law enforcement officers, but would be authorized to issue citations. They would also be able to provide intelligence and relieve police workload, staff said.<\/p>\n The rangers would hopefully help deter activity like vandalism, illegal dumping, unauthorized motor vehicle use and being in the parks after close, Thomason said.<\/p>\n Competition for funding from the CCPD is robust, Thomason said. The parks department could pitch the program to the CCPD again next year. Thomason said the city could also seek other grants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fort Worth is the only city without a full-time ranger program, and the city wants to try a pilot first, the staff told board members.<\/p>\n In answering questions from board members, staff said the rangers would wear park ranger uniforms and drive cars, trucks or ATVs bearing the ranger designation.<\/p>\n The parks department would run the hiring process and would post the jobs like other city positions.<\/p>\n Cobb Park sewer work<\/p>\n The Fort Worth Water Department<\/a> identified, in the five-year Capital Improvement Plan<\/a>, a high-priority need for a larger-diameter relief sewer parallel to an existing sewer line through Cobb Park, city staff told board members. This relief sewer pipe will:\u00a0<\/p>\n Increase sewer capacity. The city will schedule work from late 2026 to 2028, staff told board members. The board unanimously voted in support of the effort.<\/p>\n Park pest management<\/p>\n Joel McKnight, assistant park and recreation director, outlined an integrated approach for pest management. The city prefers organic and mechanical methods, he said, such as goats and natural Bt for mosquitoes, before using chemicals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Treatment will be applied only when pest populations reach damaging levels, McKnight said. The city will also plant milkweed and other pollinator-friendly species.<\/p>\n Park & Recreation Advisory Board<\/p>\n Documenter: Tekisha Hobbs<\/p>\n Date: July 22, 2026<\/p>\n Learn more about this meeting by clicking here<\/a>. For the agenda, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tekisha Hobbs is a member of the Fort Worth Report Documenters<\/a> crew. Scott Nishimura, senior editor of government accountability for the Report, contributed reporting. If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at news@fortworthreport.org<\/a> with \u201cCorrection Request\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/08\/fort-worths-effort-to-obtain-funding-for-parks-ranger-program-on-hold\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=714255&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/08\/fort-worths-effort-to-obtain-funding-for-parks-ranger-program-on-hold\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by The FWR Staff, Fort Worth Report August 8, 2026 Fort Worth\u2019s efforts to find funding for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8219,116,118,117,8221,39751],"class_list":["post-402005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-documenters","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-fort-worth-report-documenters","tag-parks-and-recreation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReduce sewer overflows.
\nAbandon an existing compromised sewer pipe.
\nReduce long-term road closures and bypass pumping needs for maintenance and repairs.<\/p>\n