Nearly three months after the spring floods began and after weeks of dry conditions in the area, Lewisville's Lake Park is finally back open for business.
The city announced late last week that the park was once again ready for the public, and on Monday morning the gates reopened to boaters and park goers eager to finally get into the popular lake park.
"We're probably taking 40 calls a day, asking who's got boat ramps open,” said Lewisville Parks Manager Larry Apple. "So it's really great that we can tell them, yeah, come to Lake Park."
Right now only one boat ramp at the park is reopened and several other areas of the park are still closed off due to waters remaining high or damage that needs to be addressed.
As of Monday Lewisville Lake remained about 3.5 feet above conservation pools according to the Army Corps of Engineers; a drastic improvement over the nearly 12.5 feet above recorded in June.
Since then, the Corps has gradually released water from the lake and others in the area in an effort to normalize levels slowly without overflowing other water bodies downstream.
There's still a long way to go, Grapevine Lake remains about 12 feet above normal levels and, despite the opening of Lake Park and others like Little Elm Beach Park, many around Lewisville Lake remain closed due to high water.
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Even those opening still have a long road ahead to get back to "normal."
Apple said they are still working to fix damage from the floods as they can and will likely be cleaning up the entire mess for months to come.
However, those back at the lake Monday were just glad to have something open at Lake Park before the summer is over.
Carl Burmeister who runs Aloha Hydro-Sports said his rental business has essentially been moth-balled for months as he's waited out the flood waters.
"It's been a buzz kill. We closed June 3 and haven't been open until three days ago," said Burmeister. "I've been doing it for 23 years and this is the worst year I've ever had, but, ya know, we're back now."
The cities and state leaders who run those parks have also missed out on significant revenue this summer due to the closures.
