Mt. Bonnell groundbreaking today

After four years, work will finally begin on the new Covert Park monument on Mount Bonnell today. The monument commemorates the Covert family’s donation of the park to the people of Travis County in 1939. The groundbreaking will take place at 8 a.m. at the foot of the steps on Mt. Bonnell Road, and an informal gathering recognizing the event will be attended by members of the Covert family, representatives of the Parks and Recreation Department and the West Point Society, who spearheaded the effort to install the new monument. The monument is being crafted and will be installed under the supervision of Gilbert Beall of Beall Memorial Art in Austin. Funding for the new marker has been provided by private donations to the Austin Parks Foundation. A news release about the event explained the timing: “We still hope to have the finished monument delivered, installed and dedicated by the end of the year,” said Fred Bothwell of the West Point Society of Central Texas, “but if that’s not possible, we wanted to use the groundbreaking to commemorate the actual 75th anniversary of the Covert family’s priceless gift to the people.”