The Town of Argyle and PointBank are collaborating to bring Argyle residents a new park, which will be called Point Bank Wallace Lynch Park, Town Manager Mike Sims confirmed Thursday.
Sims said the park, which rests on 1.3 acres of land along Hwy 377 directly south of PointBank, will have small park features like a playground and picnic tables on the southern portion.
The northern portion will have parking and dedicated open space.
“It won’t have anything huge or expensive,” said Sims. “It’s just going to have a really nice look and be a bit of a low-key park.”
Sims said he the plan is for visitors to have access from Uncle Mike’s Bistro’s patio, the PointBank parking lot and the cul-de-sac on Cherokee Trail.
Because of its location along Hwy 377, a road that continues to see more traffic, Sims said the town’s highest priority with the park is safety and preserving the town’s green space.
“A big priority of council is the beautiful collection of historic Cross Timbers trees here,” he said. “Anything we can do to preserve those is a win and being able to preserve this beautiful little stand of trees is part of it.”
For safety, Sims said the town will be separating the park with proper fencing and an entryway to the park.
“The idea is if [a parent] is having a hard time watching three or four kids, a cousin and a friend, the kids are all in one fenced area,” he said. “So they can run around without running off in the wrong direction, particularly onto [Hwy] 377.”
The park’s name includes two parts.
PointBank
PointBank references its location near PointBank, who is collaborating with the Town to bring the park to fruition.
According to Mayor Ron Schmidt, who advocated for a park at that location since he was elected, there was a park in the space before and this project will restore it for community use.
Wallace Lynch
The park pays tribute to the late Wallace Lynch, who passed away in 2017 with a long history in Argyle, according to his obituary.
He became a fourth generation Argyle citizen when he was born in 1922 in a small, wood frame house in the heart of the town. His father was a railroad worker whose ancestors were the family after which Argyle’s “Johns Well” was named.
“The Lynch family is a historic family,” said Sims. “And Wallace Lynch was instrumental with PointBank here in town, so there’s a really neat story there and that’s the idea – to honor that history.”
Lynch was baptized in a small pond on Hickory Hill Road as a teenager and eventually served as a deacon at First Baptist Argyle for more than 50 years.
After attending a small schoolhouse on Eagle Drive in Argyle, he graduated from Denton High School and worked for a drug store on the Denton Square.
Eventually, he was convinced to become a bank teller and loan officer for First State Bank. After retiring, he continued to serve on the board at First Bank State and eventually PointBank until 2015.
According to his obituary, he was also one of the original founders of the Argyle Water Supply Corporation, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, served on the Argyle School Board and helped build the old gym at what is now Argyle Intermediate School.
Park funding
According to Sims, The Town of Argyle is working on forming a nonprofit that can solicit donations to build parks around town.
