Dredging the lake within one of Mobile’s premier city parks has been an issue looming over City Councilwoman Gina Gregory during her nearly 20-year tenure on the local governing body.

With the project on the cusp of happening, Gregory – whose District 7 boundaries include Langan Park — is remaining cautious: She will believe it is happening once there are actual construction crews on the scene and digging into the lake.

“I won’t believe it till we’ve passed the contract next week and break ground on the dredging, and then I might believe it,” Gregory said ahead of a vote during next Tuesday’s council meeting on a $15.2 million contract with Hughes Companies Inc., which will oversee the 18-month dredging project.

The project is viewed as the final major action needed at enlivening the park and the area surrounding it. Part of the interconnected work was a $30 million widening of Zeigler Boulevard during a five-year project completed late last year.

The latest plan calls for Langan Park Lake to be dredged so that it’s a consistent 5-foot of depth within the lower lake area and 3 feet in the upper lake. Currently, the lake’s depths are inconsistent ranging from 6 inches to 5 feet in some areas.

The majority of the money to pay for the lake dredging is coming from funds collected from companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster under the federal RESTORE Act.

Of the $15.2 million price tag, $14.2 million is being paid for through the federal program created from the BP oil spill settlement. The city is spending over $368,000, while the State of Alabama is appropriating $712,000 for stormwater improvements related to the dredge work.

Jennifer Greene, director of programs and project management with the City of Mobile, said the goal of the dredging project is two-fold: Recreate recreational activities within the lake such as kayaking and canoeing while providing ecological improvements within it for plants and animals.

Greene said the dredging work ties into the Twelve Mile Creek stabilization project that was recently completed. The project, which exceeded $5 million, included the stabilization of banks and stream along Twelve Mile Creek that flows into Langan Park Lake.

A portion of the park’s parking lot will be closed to store the dredged material, though Greene said the objective is to keep it open for recreational opportunities as much as possible.

Construction is expected to begin in August.

Gregory, who plans to have a boathouse added to the park’s lake after the dredging, said there are also plans to improve roads and add other features within the park, including two new pavilions.

“When this is finished, Langan Park will be back as a gem,” said Gregory about a park that had long been a popular attraction for swimming decades ago.

She said she’s hopeful having the park looking like it once did when it was a central attraction for Mobilians.

“I think we can all be proud of that,” Gregory said of what she anticipates after the work is finalized. “It’s a longtime coming.”

For now, Gregory is focused on giving Mobile residents a “taste” of what the park will be like once the work is finalized.

A “paddle in the park” event is scheduled at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 7, which gives residents a rare opportunity to canoe and kayak in the lake.

“It will be a taste of what is to come,” she said.

Before that event occurs, the city will have to address one bit of nuisance – the “Langan Park alligator.”

Gregory said that city crews plan to trap and transport the alligator to a better environment than at the public park.

“No one will have to worry about the alligator on Langan Lake,” Gregory said, envisioning city crews transporting the alligator to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.

She jokingly concluded, “I can visualize him overseeing people having lunch and dinner at Felix’s (Fish Camp).”