Bill Keith Preserve

The Bill Keith Preserve is the newest addition to our neighborhood. In 2005 Broward County purchased the 4-acre tract of undeveloped riverfront land with park bond funds. The county then leased the land to the City of Fort Lauderdale for development as a nature preserve. This new park has been named the Bill Keith Preserve in memory of Bill Keith, a dedicated preservationist and friend of Shady Banks.

When purchased by Broward County, the property was a jungle in need of extensive cleanup. For over two years, city staff and volunteers for Shady Banks and Broward Urban River Trails spent one Saturday morning each month cleaning up the property. The cleanup was hard work because many non-native trees and most of the underbrush had to be cut down and hauled to a chipper, where it was ground into mulch. Since the cleanup was completed in 2009, the city has made a variety of improvements to the Preserve and it is now a beautiful shaded green space. The improvements include: mulch footpaths, a riverfront boardwalk, a gazebo, several picnic tables, a small parking lot and a few solar-powered lights.

Our Shady Banks neighbors are proud of the Bill Keith Preserve, and we thank Broward County and the City of Fort Lauderdale for making it possible. 

Below  are some pictures of the Bill Keith Preserve and the people
 who made it what it is today. Click on the thumbnail images for a larger view.

The entrance sign	The parking lot - looking toward the river	The Gazebo
The parking lot -  looking toward the street	A typical mulch footpath	The boardwalk along the river
Another footpath	The boardwalk has  several nice benches	River view - looking east
River view  from the gazebo	A crowd attended the  dedication ceremony in 2008	And the Jungle Queen tooted to the dedication crowd
City officials  and the Keith  family participated in the ceremony	Mayor Naugle   Commissioner Hutchinson and the Keith family	Another group picture
Neighborhood volunteers helped clean up the property	Mike Chamberlin (L) and Gene Dempsey (R) led the volunteer effort	Cleanup volunteers worked one  Saturday per month for over two years
More volunteers - in 2007	And we couldn't have done it without the help of our neighborhood women	Everything had to be hauled to the chipper
Here's Lyle Dodson  getting his feet wet	And Danielle Markert hard at work	And here is Bill Keith's family Heather Keith , her mom  and Jeff Harmon

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Shady Banks Civic Association