PARKS AND RECREATION
Free wifi is now available in multiple parks across the city as a new pilot program by the city of San Marcos has officially begun.
There are five parks or public spaces within the city that offer free wifi during open park hours from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. with a sixth on the way.
The city installed 25-foot towers to provide the Wi-Fi equipped with dark-sky compliant lighting that stays on from dawn until dusk for additional security.
The locations of the Wi-Fi points were recommended by city staff and approved by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
“So we have Conway Park, which is serving an underserved area of town,” Kayla McCaslin, IT and Business Systems Analyst for the city of San Marcos, said. “We have City Park to help with large events. We have the Downtown Mobility Hub to help keep people downtown longer, and also it would help students, if they're downtown and want to do some homework or something. We have Children's Park to help serve people that are visiting there. And the last one is Plaza Park, which is also to support people visiting the parks.”
Users can log on to COSM-Public-Park at the six locations and must agree to the terms and services. The city said that it is still working on getting Wi-Fi outdoors at Dunbar Park, which currently has Wi-Fi available indoors.
“I think it can be whatever the public wants it to be,” Jessica Ramos, San Marcos Parks and Recreation assistant director, said. “I think of families picnicking in the park playing music off their phone or at a birthday. If a child needs to do homework and they don’t have internet access, they could go to a neighborhood park. Conway Park would be a great spot to go and sit at a table and be in a safe place to do homework.”
This project started during the COVID-19 pandemic when the city recognized a need for Wi-Fi in outdoor spaces, but the impact can be far reaching.
The city used funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to fund the $138,000 for equipment and the first three years of use.
“With the pandemic, there became a need to have Wi-Fi outside, because Wi-Fi in the library was hard with social distancing and whatnot,” McCaslin said. “It became a priority to council, so IT put in the request for ARPA funding to be able to do this, and we did some research to figure out the best way that we could get Wi-Fi in the parks. This is the solution that we came up with.”
After the first three years, the city will determine if it is worth continuing to pay for the service. Since this is a new program, the limitations still need to be realized.
“There are definitely going to be some limitations,” McCaslin said. “The product is a solar pole, which means that if there is not a lot of sun for several days, then there may not be enough power to power the cradle points that are giving out the Wi-Fi. Also, the set up is a cradle point that connects to AT&T’s service and then it projects the Wi-Fi out from there. So we’re not sure how many people can be connected at one time. It is basically going to be working off of an AT&T hotspot. It may be limited to the number of people that can be on at a time. We’re not sure. Those are the kinds of things we still want to test out.”
McCaslin also said that while these six parks were the initial goal for the program, additional parks could be added if additional funding comes available.
“We’ve never done anything like this before, so we wanted to start with a small number and see how it goes. If it is well received, then yes, it would be great to add additional parks.”
For more information visit sanmarcostx.gov/ parkwifi.
