Ames residents will have to wait at least two years to visit Hallett’s Quarry, the 460-acre area north of Ames and the future home of a new city park, city officials say.

Voters approved the purchase of the quarry in November’s referendum vote, but Brian O’Connell, director of planning and housing, said the quarry is not yet safe for the public to visit.

The lake’s banks are unstable, and people could be injured if they gave way, he said.

Visitors also will not be able to safely explore the park once earth-moving equipment is brought in, O’Connell said.

An opening date for the park is “up in the air,” he said, but it is likely to be at least two years away.

The park, which is being designed by Illinois-based company Conservation Design Forum, will integrate wilderness and human recreation, O’Connell said.

The proposed park will have wetlands and prairie lands, as well as bike and jogging trails and a lake open to fishing and low-impact water sports.

O’Connell’s “best-guess scenario” is that the design drawings may be done by the end of winter, and that some of the construction might begin by late summer or early fall of this year. He said the public will have opportunities to view the design drawings as they are created.

Although the park is not yet open to the public, ISU students and faculty already have been involved in restoring the site.

Students from John Downing’s aquatic ecology class analyzed water samples from the lake.

Downing, professor of animal ecology, said the quarry park will be a “tremendous recreational resource for students and faculty alike.”

The quarry will be a valuable educational tool to environmental science and ecology students, because it provides a low-cost study site, he said.

The most important function of the finished park, Downing said, will ensure the second primary water supply for the entire city.

Sadja, public relations coordinator for Friends of Hallett’s Quarry, a local group organized to support the November bond issue, said the lakes are vital to the city’s water supply because they form one of the only drinkable aquifers nearby.

The city has used the quarry lakes three times since 1975 to supplement the primary source of drinking water- in 1977, 1981 and 1998.

During the 2000 drought, city officials were unable to obtain permission to access the water supply from the company that owned the quarry. Instead, city officials had to pump water from Peterson’s Pits.

While that water is safe to drink, its quality is not as good as quarry water supply, Sadja said.

Ames residents passed a $4.97 million bond issue in November to help raise money to purchase the property. In December, Ames bought the quarry lands for $7.5 million.

City officials currently are calling the area “Ames Quarry,” but Sadja said the name is not permanent, and other suggestions are being considered.

An open house is being held to discuss implementation of the master plan for the quarry park from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 30 in the Community Room on the second floor of the Ames Public Library.