"I, as a parks and recreation director can see more people attending the parks and using the parks," Parks and Leisure Director Milt Stowe said.
The concept came from Mayra Gomez, a substitute teacher who was having trouble finding a full-time teaching job in today's economy and needed something to supplement her income.
"We own a home here in Porterville and so yes in the last years you know when houses went down it was kind of tough," Mayra Gomez said.
Always looking for something new for her kids to do, Gomez and her husband saw a trackless train like this one at a park in southern California. They decided to purchase a train like it and sent a proposal to the city to offer rides at Murry Park.
"Eventually we want that's the plan to have our own little fleet of trains in Tulare County"
Gomez also wants to bring some paddle boats for the pond but city officials are worried the pond is too small and that they'll interfere with the geese and ducks.
"That was one of the ideas was to bring paddle boats but there's many concerns there you know with the size of the pond, docking stations and things so we'll probably hold off on that."
Gomez hopes the train will just be the beginning of adding new kid-friendly attractions to Porterville to make Murry Park a central location in Porterville for families to go. Eventually, she hopes to add a carousel.
"It would be at low cost because I know at this side of town we have a lot of people who are low income."
Part of the profits would also go to the city parks department.
