Boulevard Woods

BNA/ALT Fundraising Agreement is Signed

Athens Land Trust, a locally trusted 501(c) 3 non-profit with professional staff, will help Boulevard Neighborhood Association administer fundraising for the Boulevard Woods project.

The agreement, officially called a memorandum of understanding, between the two organizations has been signed and is ready to go into effect.

BNA, which is spearheading the Boulevard Woods effort, sought the agreement with ALT because BNA does not have official non-profit status and wanted to be able to offer potential donors to the project the ability to claim tax deductibility for contributions.

The agreement means that we could--if we wanted to--start fundraising for the project right now.

But we've decided to start the fundraising drive only after we've gotten the official green light from the Mayor and Commission to create Boulevard Woods.

We're hoping the Mayor and Commission will give us permission to create Boulevard Woods as long as we raise a certain amount of funds and donated materials by certain date. Doing it this way reduces the risk for Athens-Clarke County and for us. 

For ACC, making the permission contingent on sufficient fundraising, protects them from us starting the project but failing to raise enough to complete it. And, for our part, we won't have to be raising money for a project that may or may not be approved in the end: if we reach our goals, then we'll be able to build Boulevard Woods. This will give our fundraising campaign a sense of urgency, and our donors more confidence.

When will the Mayor and Commission give us a thumbs up or down? We don't know exactly yet, but should have a solid timeline later this month. Stay tuned.

Thanks to Nancy Stangle, Matt Bowers and Heather Denham and everyone at Athens Land Trust for their willingness to help us!

BNA Amends Bylaws to Create Park Position

At its annual business meeting yesterday, Boulevard Neighborhood Association (BNA) voted by acclamation to amend its bylaws to create a "neighborhood park/public green space standing committee."

The new committee, with an elected standing committee chairperson, is charged with coordinating with county departments and other organizations to manage and maintain Boulevard Woods and to fulfill any park-related obligations BNA may accept under agreements with Athens-Clarke County and Athens Land Trust (ALT), which has agreed to help BNA administer fundraising.

Earlier BNA created a temporary committee to help lead the push to gain ACC approval. That committee will remain in place until the plan for Boulevard Woods is approved, and when that happens (knock on wood) the new standing committee will take over.

In related news, discussions with Athens Land Trust about a memorandum of understanding outlining how they would help BNA administer fundraising are nearly complete. Which means we'll be technically ready to start fundraising, though we'll likely wait until ACC gives the green light for the project in February (we hope!).

Walk It Off at Boulevard Woods

 

It's a beautiful day for a post-Thanksgiving-Day-feast-walk along the nature trail loop at Boulevard Woods.

BNA Moves to "Adopt" Boulevard Woods

"Get a neighborhood group or non-profit organization that's been around a while and has a solid reputation to stand behind your park."

That's the advice we've been getting from Athens-Clarke Co. commissioners and county staff. They say that ACC is more likely to give a green light to a volunteer-driven neighborhood park project like Boulevard Woods if there's an organization with longevity and credibility backing it up.

Recently, we've taken some big steps to follow that advice.

The steering committee for Boulevard Neighborhood Association, a formally organized neighborhood group with bylaws and officers that has been working to protect and improve the neighborhood since the early 1980s, voted last week to begin what one might call the "adoption process" of Boulevard Woods. First, the steering committee created a temporary BNA committee to help guide the Boulevard Woods project through the next few months as it heads to the Mayor and Commission for consideration. 

BNA also gave its chairperson--that's me, Dan Lorentz--the go-ahead to draft agreements with Athens Land Trust, a locally well-known and respected non-profit, to handle fundraising for the project and, when the time comes, with ACC to organize the construction and maintenance of the park. The draft agreements are subject to approval by BNA's steering committee.

Finally, BNA members will vote on Dec. 4 at their annual membership meeting on a amendment to BNA's bylaws that would create a permanent "neighborhood park/public green space standing committee" if and when ACC approves Boulevard Woods. If the amendment passes (and if ACC approves the park), the chair of the park committee would be a regular member of BNA's steering committee.

In one sense, BNA adopted the three parcels that comprise "Boulevard Woods" a couple of years ago under the "Adopt Athens" anti-litter program. But these recent votes mean that BNA is adopting the park project as its own.

For most users of the future park, all this behind-the-scenes bureaucratic stuff isn't that interesting. What is important about what BNA is doing is this: it's sending a signal to ACC that the Boulevard neighborhood is serious about wanting to create Boulevard Woods and about its longterm commitment to it.

Read more about the next steps for the project here.

Another Pic from Sunday's Ramble at Boulevard Woods

Photo by Charles Apostolik

Pics: Sunday Afternoon Ramble at Boulevard Woods

About thirty people (if you include children) and two dogs enjoyed a walk through the nature trail at Boulevard Woods late Sunday afternoon. They (the people, at least) also enjoyed cups of hot-chocolate, homemade cookies and the company of neighbors and friends at an event organized by Boulevard Woods volunteers.

If you haven't been to the Boulevard Woods site lately and walked the loop trail through the park, please come and see the progress we're making.

Here are a few more snapshots from Sunday's event:

 

 

 

Nature Trail is Looking Good

                       The head of the nature trail that loops through the site.

After a small volunteer crew removed some brush and hauled and spread many wheelbarrows full of mulch Saturday, the nature trail that loops around the Boulevard Woods site is looking good. Mulching is not quite finished and the trail has a few places where we need to put in steps or do some grading work, but for the most part the trail is highly walkable and very pleasant.

Please come for a stroll. Be careful, but enjoy!

Volunteers included: Carole Holmes, Alex White, Jim Okey and Dan Lorentz.

We owe special thanks to: Ida Mae Griffin for the use of her driveway, and to Stacy Smith at the Keep Athens Clarke County Beautiful program for supplying tools on a last minute request.

More views of the trail:

 

Thanks to Rivers Alive Volunteers

A crew of volunteers from the Rivers Alive project (most are in this photo) hauled out a massive amount of brush on Saturday, October 15 to help clear a looped trail at the site. They also picked-up several bags of trash and recycling.

Rivers Alive is a volunteer effort focused on keeping waterways (and areas like Boulevard Woods which are near waterways) clean. The annual event is organized by Hands On Northeast Georgia, with lots of help from Athens-Clarke Co. 

Volunteers included: Marci White, Laura Hill, Paige Olmstead, Paula Schwanenflugel, Lora Loke, Luke Worsham, Dan Lorentz, Allison Lewis, Maddi Lewis, Evan Lewis, Mark Davis, Hillary Barber, Alvin Angulo, Margo Rothstein, Eric Heil, Lori Ringhand and at least three others who neglected to sign-in.  Thanks everyone!

We also owe thanks to: Mel Cochran, Ellison Fielder, Stacy Smith, Stacee Farrell from Athens-Clarke Co. for their help in the Rivers Alive event; to Greg Denzin of G&G Landscape Design who loaned wheelbarrows and tools for our use; and--as always--to Ms Ida Mae Griffin, who generously allows us to use her driveway. 

Boulevards Woods is a Rivers Alive Project

This year Boulevard Woods is a participating site in the Rivers Alive volunteer effort.

Rivers Alive is an annual volunteer day organized by Hands On Northeast Georgia. This year's event takes place Saturday, Oct. 15.

As always, the focus of the event is keeping the waterways in Athens clean. Even though Boulevard Woods doesn't contain a waterway, the site is immediately adjacent to a streambed--and so they've invited us to participate.

Which is great because we've got a bunch of work that needs doing, including spreading mulch on trails. We'll also be hauling debris and picking up trash.

Here's the schedule for Saturday, Oct. 15:

8-9am - Rivers Alive Volunteer check-in at Dudley Park (coffee and juice will be provided)

9am-12noon - Clean-up project at Boulevard Woods

12noon-1pm - Back at Dudley Park for prizes, lunch, band performance, kids area and games.

For more information and to register as a volunteer for the Boulevard Woods Rivers Alive project, go here.

Boulevard Woods is on Facebook (finally)

Boulevard Woods now has a Facebook page.

We figured it couldn't hurt to have a page as we prepare our push to get approval to build Boulevard Woods from Athens-Clarke County in February 2012 (just a little over 5 months from now.)

Going forward, all park project updates will be posted on the Boulevard Woods Facebook page. We'll keep this website--boulevardwoods.net--up to date, too. The website will remain a good source for more complete information about the project.

We'll have more information about how you can help make Boulevard Woods a reality soon. In the meantime, if you're on Facebook and you want to support Boulevard Woods, you can help by liking us.

February 2012

After a very productive meeting last week with our Athens Clarke County Leisure Services liaisons, we decided that our goal will be to officially ask ACC to approve our Boulevard Woods park plan no later than February 2012--which is just a little more than six months from now.

On Aug. 10, we--Allen Stovall, Marci White and I (Dan Lorentz)--had a wide-ranging and practical discussion about how to move the Boulevard Woods project forward with Pam Reidy, director of ACC's Leisure Services; Dan Magee, Park Services Division Administrator and Mel Cochran, Greenways manager.  We met them at the site first for a tour, and then continued our discussion at Allen's house.

Here's a summary of key points from the discussion:

• Their role: As our liaisons, Leisure Services will help us put together a plan for a park at the site that they would then present before the Mayor and Commission for their approval, modification or rejection. (One possibility is that M&C could approve a plan for the park contingent on us raising a certain amount of funds and donated labor by a certain date.)

• Timeframe: We and they agreed that we should aim to have the plan ready to propose to the commission for a work session briefing and then a vote in February 2012.

• Who is paying for what: While they are clearly expecting us to pay for the overwhelming majority of park costs--including construction, installation and maintenance--they also recognized that the Mayor and Commission could, if they chose to do so, agree to fund more of it than they are currently envisioning. Our plan, after careful consideration of what financial burdens can be realistically borne by us and ACC, will have to detail who's paying for what and how and when.

• Limited resources: They emphasized that the budget for Leisure Services is already stretched very thin and that, currently, there's no money budgeted for small neighborhood parks.

• Estimating costs: We agreed that we'll do most of the leg-work in getting cost estimates building and maintaining the park. They agreed to help us develop estimates if we encounter difficulties and to make sure those numbers are credible estimates.

• Costs to factor-in: In addition to estimating the costs of park amenities like the front fence, or the canopy walk or benches and routine maintenance, they said our plan should also include estimates for ongoing tree maintenance, invasive plant control, dog waste collection (providing waste bags and receptacles) and pedestrian safety crossing improvements.

• Pedestrian crossing safety: They warned us not to assume that ACC will have readily available funds to pay for making desired pedestrian safety enhancements at the intersection of Boulevard and Barber. But because such improvements are key to making the park safe, identifying a source of funds for this will be critical. (ACC may in fact be able to fund this, we and they just don't know at this point.)

• Phasing: They strongly recommended that we present a plan for a park that can be built in manageable phases that allow use to continue while finances rebuild for subsequent phases.

• Importance of formal agreements: They said that formal agreements (memorandums of understanding) detailing responsibilities for fundraising and maintenance between ACC and a stable, officially organized  neighborhood group will likely prove to be critical to assuring ACC that the county won't get stuck with costs that the neighborhood has promised to bear.

• Fundraising: They liked the fact that Athens Land Trust has indicated that they will serve as the administrator for our fundraising: it shows we're being serious, and likely to be well-organized about raising funds. They urged us to be creative and energetic about fund raising efforts.

• Neighborhood park program: They mentioned the possibility that ACC might be interested in creating neighborhood park program sometime in the future. If so, and if the program is funded, then there'd be a chance that our project might qualify for some funding. (There's no such proposal on the table yet to our knowledge, however.)

This summary makes it clear that we've got lots of work yet to do. But now we've got a deadline to motivate us and to finally make Boulevard Woods a reality.

A Quick Sprucing-Up

Above, Carole Holmes and Jim Okey steer wheelbarrows full of mulch down to a trail segment near a well that was discovered on the site last year.

With just a small squad of volunteers, we nevertheless managed to spruce-up the Boulevard Woods site on a very humid Saturday, Aug. 6 morning. We picked-up trash, used weed-whackers to keep trails open and spread a good deal of mulch.

The purpose of Saturday's work was to prepare the site in advance of a meeting to discuss the future of our proposed park later that week with Athens-Clarke County Leisure Service officials. (More about that meeting soon.)

Volunteers included: Ross Pringle, Rachel Watkins, Allen Stovall, Larry Slutzky, James Okey, Carole Holmes, Dan Lorentz and Lori Ringhand.

We owe special thanks to: Stacy Smith and the Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful Program for loaning us tools; to Bruce and Jane Travis for bagels and the Boulevard Neighborhood Association for cream cheese.

What a difference a little mulch makes:

A freshly mulched trail segment in the upper part of the site.

 

A little mulch really helps make a crude path become a trail.

 

We've Got ACC Liaisons

About a week ago we got word that ACC manager Alan Reddish asked Pam Reidy, director of Leisure Services, to serve as a liaison with the Boulevard Woods project team. In turn, she's assigned two Leisure Service staff people--park services division administrator Dan Magee and Greenways supervisor Mel Cochran--to help us develop and bring forward a project concept for eventual consideration by the Mayor and Commission.

A few of us will be meeting with Reidy, Magee and Cochran at the site next week to start figuring out what we need to do next.

This is a big step forward for the project. We now have people on the "inside" who've been given official permission to help us with the park project.  This doesn't mean that ACC has approved a park at the site yet, but it does mean that they know we're serious about moving forward.

We owe thanks to District 5 Commissioner Jared Bailey, and Super District Commissioners Kelly Girtz and Mike Hamby for their efforts in making this happen. We also owe thanks to Roger Cauthen at ACC's landscape management division for his continuing helpfulness and accessibility.

First Work Day of 2011 is a Big Success

Our first volunteer work day of 2011 was a big success. In our best turnout yet, 19 people--including many new faces--showed up to haul trash and other debris up and out, trim vines and pull weeds among other tasks. We got a lot done, but, of course, there's much more to do.

Here are some photos of our work:

Volunteers for the first work day of 2011 included: Lillian Agel, Marci White, Allen Stovall, Charles Apostolik, Anna Claire Davis, Katherine Melcher, Kevan Williams, Matt Elliot, Micah Yost, Chris McDowell, Judson Abbott, Vera Eve Giampietro, Cameron Gube, Keristin Gober, Stephanie Wolfgang, Sam Kelleher, Rachel Watkins, Larry Slutsky and Laura Sommet.

We owe special thanks to: Stacee Farrell and the Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful Program for loaning us tools; Matt Elliot for picking-up and returning those tools; Bruce and Jane Travis for bagels, cream cheese, fruit and water; Lillian Agel for coffee and more; Charles Apostolik for cleaning-up tools afterwards; Rachel Watkins for taking photos of the work day; and to ACC's Landscape Division for--among many other things--agreeing to remove all the debris we hauled up and out of the site.

Concept Plan for Boulevard Woods

Boulevard Woods Concept Plan by the Boulevard Woods Design Team. Image produced by Kevan Williams.

You may have read about it in the Boulevard Neighborhood Association's Fall 2010 newsletter, but for the first time on this web site, here's the concept plan we've developed for Boulevard Woods.

It's the product of lots of hard work by our Design Team, and it's based on lots of feedback from neighborhood residents and from park project volunteers. We conducted a survey and a questionnaire to learn about preferences for park uses and amenities. And we held a charrette to gather specific feedback on alternative park designs.

Remember, this is our concept plan. Neither this plan nor the use of the site as a park have yet been approved by Athens-Clarke Co. We are seeking such approval, but it hasn't been granted yet.

Note, too, that the park we actually end up building may differ from the concept plan described here. The county may ask for changes, for example. Or, as we learn more about the topography of the site, our design team may--most likely will--want to tweak things. It's also possible that we might raise more or less money than we expected, which would change what we can afford to build.

Still, we've developed a good concept plan--one that reflects what the neighborhood wants and that we'll use to guide our ongoing discussions with Athens-Clarke County about how to develop the potential park.

Now, let's take a tour of the key features and amenities.

• Neighborhood landmark. Located on Barber Street right where Boulevard ends (or begins), the site is well-situated to serve as a neighborhood landmark.  And park features such as the enhanced pedestrian crosswalks, a street-facing fence an entrance plaza integrated with an improved bus shelter and a canopy walk aligned with the direction of Boulevard will all serve to create a "landmark" feel to the place.

• Enhanced crosswalks. Bold pedestrian crosswalks combined with signage will make pedestrian access to the park safe, and improve over-all pedestrian safety at this key intersection.

• Entrance plaza and improved bus shelter. A small entrance plaza, with an improved bus shelter, will provide a natural access point via a gate to the park.

• Local art. We plan to integrate local art--possibly including mosaics,  sculptural pieces, and benches made of found-objects or materials from the site--into the park's features.

• Street-facing fence. A fence stretching the length of the Barber Street face of the park will provide definition and safety for park users, including kids at play.

• Play lawn. Located at the "top" of the park, this open lawn will make a good play area for kids. Plenty of seating will be provided in this area, including seating that overlooks the interior of the park.

• Canopy walk. This will be a kind of pier that extends from the "top" part of the site out over the terraces drop off from it. The walk will take users into dense tree canopy in the site's interior and will enable people to see deep into the site.

• Overlooks. In addition to the canopy walk, there will be one or two seating areas on the "top" part of the park that will allow people to look down into the lower terrace.

• Amphitheater/stormwater feature. Tucked into natural contours, this amphitheater-like space could serve as welcoming place for small acoustic concerts or outdoor meetings or simply as an attractive place to sit. A a shallow channel for stormwater runoff might be incorporated in the amphitheater.

• Bioswale. A stormwater runoff streams runs through the site. We'll turn at least part of this stream into an attractive bioswale.

• ADA paved path. To make sure everyone can gain access to most of the site, which has some rather steep declines, we'll build a paved path at an handicapped-accessible grade.

• Seating nook. There'll be seating areas throughout the site, including a few seating nooks where small groups of people could gather.

• Crawford Street Gate. To enhance security and provide boundary definition, there'll be a gate facing Crawford Street.

• Wishing well. We discovered a deep hand-dug well on the site. It's now covered with a light- and rain-permeable grate, but we hope create some sort of feature that highlights the well.

• Gathering space. Set in the interior of the site, this simple gathering space will likely consist of rustic benches benches facing each other with shade provided by trees.

• Mulched trails. Mulched trails will meaning through the site, though we'll be careful to keep the trails from encroaching too close to adjacent properties.

• Maintenance gate. This will allow landscape maintenance equipment to access the site.

• Privacy plantings. There will be a variety of plantings--and possibly fences or other  in strategic locations designed to enhance the privacy of the park's neighbors.

So, what's next for the park project?

Well, many other steps are to follow before any actual construction takes place. These include securing permission to use the site as a park, incorporating feedback from Athens Clarke County into a final buildable park plan, developing a plan to build the park in phases, creating some form of county/neighborhood park partnership and demonstrating success in fundraising.

Still, the concept plan is a big step forward. Everyone in the neighborhood owes thanks to our Design Team for developing an exciting yet practical plan that captures Boulevard’s spirit. There'll be more about next steps in future posts.

Oh, and by the way, you may have noticed that we're calling the park "Boulevard Woods" now. That's the name that got the most votes from neighborhood residents at the charrette we held. It has a nice ring to it, and it seems to be catching on.

 

Park Design Charrette Generates Lots of Feedback

Kevan Williams, a member of the Barber St. Park Project Design Team, gives neighborhood residents a quick orientation to four alternative park concepts at the start of a neighborhood feedback meeting held at the ATHICA gallery space. 

About 35 people participated in our neighborhood charrette last Monday at the ATHICA gallery space in the Tracy St. warehouses.

A charrette (pronounced shuh-ret) is a meeting or conference devoted to a concerted effort to solve a design problem or plan something. And that's exactly what neighborhood residents did: they helped our design team to figure out the best plan for a potential park at the East end of Boulevard at Barber St.

Neighborhood residents listened to design team members explain their concepts, and then we gathered lots of feedback on the four alternative concepts that were presented.

Take a look at the concepts and other context materials here. It's not too late to comment.

In the next step, the design team will digest the feedback on the concepts and develop a single proposal. Once that's done, we'll take it to the Athens-Clarke County Commission and seek approval to build our park at this site. At this stage, we may have to modify our plans, but we're flexible. Of course, there will be lots of work to do after that, too. But we'll take this one step at a time.

Stay tuned for more updates.

One participant at the charrette writes a comment while others look on. 

***

Taking in the four park concepts.

Neighborhood Charrette* Scheduled

Legend box from draft concept #1. Image by Kevan Williams.

The Barber St. Park Project is moving forward, and we need your input.

Our design team has developed four alternative design concepts for a possible park or public green space at the Barber St. site. We need you to take a look at these concepts and let us know what you think about them.

You can inspect and comment on the designs at a neighborhood charrette -- or design input session -- on Monday, July 26 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the ATHICA gallery space, 160 Tracy St. Unit 4. (Find ATHICA here.)

Input at this event will be crucial in developing the final proposal we'll present to the county.

Please come, exchange views with your neighbors and tell our design team what you think. There will be refreshments, too.

___ ___ ___

* What's a charrette? Here's what Wikipedia says.

Design Team Gets Started

After having individually explored the site multiple times over the past months and after having absorbed results from our Early Feedback Questionnaire, our design team met for the first time June 16.

We compared site analysis notes and bounced design ideas off one another for nearly three hours. [Above, design team sets up for concept presentations.]

The next step is to synthesize that discussion to produce a set of design concept alternatives to show to the neighborhood for more input before a final concept is proposed. (That synthesis is being put together right now, and we hope to announce a neighborhood input meeting or two very soon, so stay tuned. And remember: the proposal we come up with will be just that--a proposal that will have to be reviewed, modified and approved by the county.)

Here are photos from the meeting. They give a feel for what happened and a peek at some of the preliminary concepts.

Presentations

Henry Parker, an architect and planner, kicks-off the concept presentations.

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Greg Denzin answers a question about a proposed bio-swale. Denzin is a professional landscape designer.

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Katherine Melcher discusses her analysis of the site, one aspect of which focused on the from-the-street visibility of different zones in the parcel. Melcher is an assistant professor at UGA's College of Environment and Design.

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Kevan Williams, a recently graduated UGA landscape architecture student, points out how circulation might work in the site.

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Allen Stovall, the leader of the design team, responds to a question from Denzin about his site analysis. Stovall is a landscape architect and professor emeritus of UGA's College of Environment and Design.

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Mosaicist Krysia Haag talks about incorporating a community-driven mosaic project into the site. Examples of Haag's mosaic projects can be seen at Daily Groceries, on Prince Ave. and at Chase St. School.

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Concepts

Parker's concept includes organic shapes and simple amenities.

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Denzin's analysis which included a system of paths and paid close attention to the location of specimen trees.

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As part of his analysis, Williams focused on how to use the site's terraces to transition to different parts of the parcel.

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Melcher's site analysis puts forward suggestions about possible use areas based on visibility and safety considerations.

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A close-up of Stovall's concept showing pedestrian crosswalks, paths inside the site, use-areas and possible trails.

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A quick, suggestive sketch by Haag giving an idea how a mosaic might be incorporated into a low-wall or fence at the front of the site.

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Thanks to all the design team members for their work, and thanks to Allen Stovall for organizing the meeting.

Early Feedback Questionnaire: Most Common Responses

Here's what people are thinking about the Barber St. site:

1. Favorite things about the site are...

• Trees (33)
• Natural, woodsy feel (21)
• Easy access (19)
• Terrain/terraces/topography (17)
• Shade (10)
• Open space/natural rooms (6)

2. Major concerns about the site are...

• Slope steepness (10)
• Safety of pedestrian crossing (9)
• Loitering/prostitutes (8)
• Containing playing kids (8)
• Invasive plants (6)
• Safety from crime (5)

3. People want...

• Play area for kids (17)
• Walking trails (17)
• Dog walk area (17)
• Places to sit (16)
• Picnic area (16)
• Neighborhood activity area (15)

4. People don't want...

• Off-leash dogs/dog poop (16)
• Grilling (6)
• Smoking (6)
• Crime (5)
• Noise (5)

These results come from our Barber St. Early Feedback Questionnaire, which asked people about what they thought about the site and what they'd like to see there. 

Fifty-two people responded to the online survey.

The results were generated by categorizing the responses and then counting them. All questions were open-ended--which is to say people responded in their own words and didn't have to pick predetermined responses.

Many people included multiple items in their responses to questions. Only those items mentioned five times or more are highlighted here. The response count is the number in parenthesis.

The survey was conducted via Survey Monkey from March 17 to April 14.  You can view all the responses here.

The purpose of the questionnaire was to give our design team something concrete to work with in developing a design concept for the site. That work has begun. We should have a few alternative concepts ready to show to the neighborhood very soon. We'll be organizing a neighborhood-wide "charette" to gather input from everyone in the next few weeks.

There's still lots of work to be done after that, though, including finalizing a design concept, getting an official green light from the county to use the site as a park/green space and a whole bunch of fundraising...but we're making steady progress.

Tree Inventory & Assessment Report is Complete

Two UGA urban tree management students have prepared a well-illustrated 21 page report about the trees on the top west end of the Barber St. site--the part of the site most likely to be used as a park or public green space.

The report--entitled Barber Street Park Project: Tree Inventory & Assessment--identifies 52 individual trees and recommends care for them. Aluminum tags will be affixed to the 21 of these trees (those with diameters of 15-inches or greater) with numbers that correspond to a tree inventory map that's included in the report. (As of this writing, some of the trees on the north side of the site have been tagged.)

In addition to an entry on each of the 52 trees, the report also includes general tree maintenance guidelines with tailored recommendations for professional-level care and for volunteer-level care, and much else.

Lindsey Hutchison and Allison Dublinksi wrote the report. Download Barber St Park Tree Inventory_051110.pdf (2350.0K)

The Barber St. Park Project owes them a big thank you: THANK YOU!

Here are a couple images of pages from the report:

 

An Earth Day Scrapbook

About 15 people gathered at the Barber St. site on the evening of Thursday, April 22 to mark Earth Day by learning a little about what kind of trees, plants and animals inhabit the site and by reading a little poetry in praise of the Earth and nature.

Matt Elliott (left) talked about how aggressive invasive plants like privet and bush honeysuckle are competing in the site with less aggressive non-native plants like Pecan trees and native trees and plants like the loblolly pine and muscadine vine. Matt holds a jar with a crayfish and another container with a salamander--both caught in the stream that runs just East of the site. Matt is chair of the Boulevard Neighborhood Association and--in his day job--is Program Manager for the Georgia Natural Heritage Program. He is also co-author of Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia.

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Lindsey Hutchison and Allison Dublinski (right) explained how they have mapped and identified 52 trees with diameters of 15 inches or more in the cleared areas of the site.  Lindsey and Allison answered questions about particular trees and how to care for them. The two are students in UGA's Masters of Landscape Architecture program and are conducting a tree inventory and health assessment of the trees on the site as a project for a Urban Tree Management course through the Forestry School.

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Some of the Earth Day celebration participants waiting for the poetry reading to begin in a natural theater.

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Todd Hutchison reading Advice from a Tree by Ilan Shamir.

Advice from a Tree
by Ilan Shamir

Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source
Think long term
Go out on a limb
Remember your place among all living beings
Embrace with joy the changing seasons
For each yields its own abundance
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment of Summer
The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall
The Rest and Quiet of Renewal in the Winter

Feel the wind and the sun
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon that shines down upon you
And the mystery of the stars at night
Seek nourishment from the good things in life
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light

Be content with your natural beauty
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots

Enjoy the view!

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Dan Lorentz read Listening by William Stafford and--thankfully--didn't have his picture taken.

Listening
by William Stafford

My father could hear a little animal step,
or a moth in the dark against the screen,
and every far sound called the listening out
into places where the rest of us had never been.

More spoke to him from the soft wild night
than came to our porch for us on the wind;
we would watch him look up and his face go keen
till the walls of the world flared, widened.

My father heard so much that we still stand
inviting the quiet by turning the face,
waiting for a time when something in the night
will touch us too from that other place.

***

Marci White reading The Wild by Wendell Berry, with two especially attentive audience members in the foreground.

The Wild
by Wendell Berry
 
In the empty lot - a place
not natural, but wild - among
the trash of human absence,
 
the slough and shamble
of the city's seasons, a few
old locusts bloom.
 
A few woods birds
fly and sing
in the new foliage
 
- warblers and tanagers, birds
wild as leaves; in a million
each one would be rare,
 
new to the eyes. A man
couldn't make such a habit
of such color,
 
such flight and singing.
But they're the habit of this
wasted place, In them
 
the ground is wise. They are
its remembrance of what it is.

***

Heidi Lynn Staples, one of the evening's organizers, reading For the Children by Gary Synder. Staples is a published poet.

For The Children
by Gary Synder

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
The steep climb
of everything, going up
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

Site is Prepped for Earth Day Celebration

To get the Barber St. site ready for an Earth Day Celebration on April 22, the previous Saturday a small crew of volunteers removed new plant growth and repositioned some downed tree limbs and stumps to create a small--and temporary--outdoor "theater" to host the poetry reading part of the program.

The armory of tools for the day's work. Most of these were borrowed from the Keep Athens-Beautiful program.

***

Refreshments for volunteers as provided by Bruce and Jane Travis (again).

***

Larry Slutzky battling new privet shoots.

***

Todd Hutchison cleaning up in the poetry reading "theater."

***

Rachel Watkins at work on removing some of the "trip wire" vines on a path.

***

The poetry reading theater space before the volunteers got to work.

***

After.

***

Earth Day prep volunteers included: Charles Apostolik, Eppie Boze, Todd Hutchison, Dan Lorentz, Larry Slutzky, Bruce Travis, Jane Travis, Rachel Watkins and Kevan Williams. Special thanks to: Stacee Farrell and Susan Reese from the Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful program, and Roger Cauthen and the ACC Landscape Division for timely mowing. We were also delighted to be visited by project volunteers Marci White and Harper while on their way to other obligations.

Tree Inventory and Health Assessment Underway

Trees are a great asset to any park site, and they are a vital component of the Barber Street site. But the lack of good pruning care and prevalence of invasive vines strangling the trunks and branches undermines the health of the trees.  As anyone who has walked through the Barber Street parcel can see, the trees there are certainly being challenged by invasive vines. (Above, trees wrapped by English Ivy vines.)

But help is on the way.

Lindsey Hutchison (pictured in photo below) and Allison Dublinski are conducting an inventory and health assessment of the trees on the upper part of the site--the space where a future park is most likely to be situated. Petersen and Dublinski are second-year students in UGA's Masters of Landscape Architecture program and currently enrolled in an Urban Tree Management course through the Forestry School.

"Through our tree inventory and health assessment, we hope to provide the information and guidance needed to ensure the vitality of the trees in any implemented design as well as safeguard the park visitors," Petersen and Dublinski say.

The tree inventory is a project for the course the students are taking. They expect to complete the project by the end of April. When it's done, the Barber Street Park Project Volunteers will be given a report including a map of tree locations and accompanying data describing each significant tree (diameter 15" or greater) and recommendations for care.

Broken branches hanging from vines.

[Photos by Lindsey Petersen and Allison Dublinski]

Trash Pick-Up and (Belated) Birthday Party

On Saturday, March 20--the first day of Spring--a small crew of us volunteers picked the Barber St. site clean of litter, and hauled-out a small plastic pool, a purple bra, several feet of plastic tubing, an ancient car battery and many pounds more of assorted junk. We also removed a pile of tree limbs and relocated some stumps and larger logs for potential future use.

Oh yes, and we still had time to chat with Commissioner Kelly Girtz, who stopped by on his own trash pick-up rounds, and to present a birthday/thank you cake, card and flowers to a helpful neighbor.

Here are photos from Saturday, March 20's work day/birthday party:

Katie Medina poses with trash pinchers and garbage bag.

* * *

Henry Parker prefers to pick trash by hand and uses a bucket.

Eric Heil invents a labor-saving log-rolling technique.

* * *

Rachel Watkins helps sort tree limbs. We kept the bigger logs and stumps for possible future use for the park. You can glimpse the trash and junk we collected behind Rachel. (I meant to take a photo of that, but forget to.)

* * *

Charles "Trucker Charlie" Apostolik chauffeured the trash, tree limbs along with a couple volunteers to help with unloading, to Athens Clarke-Co. Landscape Division's recycling, trash and yard waste bins located on the West end of Boulevard.

Barber Street Park Project volunteers Dan Lorentz and Marci White present a cake and flowers to Ms Ida Mae Griffin. Ms Griffin lives in the yellow house on Barber St. right next to the site. She turned 91 earlier in March, and has been a neighbor to the site for decades.

* * *

Ida Mae with cake and card. The cake and card were sponsored by the Boulevard Neighborhood Association. The flowers (in the photo above) were donated by Eppie Boze, a park volunteer and neighborhood resident.

* * *

Ida Mae and her daughter Tennie Brookins. Ms Griffin and Ms Brookins have been very generous in allowing the park project volunteers to use their driveway to access the site.

* * *

Spring Cleaning volunteers included: Charles Apostolik, Eppie Boze, Eric Heil, Dan Lorentz, Katie Medina, Henry Parker, Rachel Watkins and Marci White.

Special thanks to: Stacee Farrell, executive director of Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful, for loaning us trash pinchers, buckets and trash bags. Roger Cauthen, Athens-Clarke Co. Landscape Management Division, for arranging access to recycling, trash and yard waste bins. Bruce Lonnee, Athens-Clarke Co. Planning Department, for approving an Environmental Areas Permit for our continuing limited cleaning and trimming work on the site. Boulevard Neighborhood Association for sponsoring the cake. Ida Mae Griffin and Tennie Brookins, once again, for use of their driveway.

Help the Design Team--Fill Out Early Feedback Questionnaire

We're getting close to beginning work on a preliminary plan for a park at the Barber St. site, but the "design team" that will be putting that first plan on paper needs your help.

As you may know already, the site for the potential park—located at 298 Barber St., on the East side of the intersection of Barber St. and Boulevard—is currently an unused lot owned by Athens-Clarke Co. 

We want to know what kind of park uses you think are appropriate for this 1.8-acre site.

Download a PDF version of the Early Feedback Questionnaire (22.8K) or use the online version at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/barberstreet—to let us know what you’re thinking.

Right now we’re working with the Boulevard Neighborhood Association, which—under the county’s Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful program—has “adopted’ the site for purposes of limited clearing, site documentation and trash pick-ups.  We’re hoping eventually to get the county’s approval for a park at this site, but doing so will take many steps, including this early step of giving our “design team” some site-specific ideas and preferences to work with.

Our survey last year gave us lots of ideas but these weren't tied to a particular location. Now, that we have a potential site—a site you can walk around in and explore—we need you to imagine your park desires in a real place.

Please visit the site. Repeated visits at different times (week days, weekends, morning, afternoon, early evening) are encouraged. During your visits, we'd like you to do respond to the questions in the attached questionnaire. Simple lists are all that's expected. Please feel free to share thoughts or comments that aren't captured by the questions. Diagrams, sketches, doodles are welcome, too. You might find this map of existing conditions handy to have on your site visits.(1261.1K)

When you go to the site, please be very careful.  Please stay in the areas where we trimmed back the vegetation and stay out of the wooded areas. There are lots of vines, stumps and fallen branches to trip on. Some of slopes are quite steep. Watch your step!

We’ll need your responses no later than Wednesday, April 14.

This will not be your only opportunity to provide input. You and the whole neighborhood will be invited to contribute to future plans. But your contribution at this early stage will be very important to the design team. The input you provide will be the first detailed input based on this specific site. It will be very helpful in generating the preliminary plan to be presented later for review and modification. This is an early but important step. Please help.

Take a Closer Look at This Existing Conditions Map

Click here to view larger size

This recently created map, which debuted at a neighborhood party last weekend, shows existing conditions at the potential Barber St. park site.

The map is not plan (we don't have one yet) and it's not a precise survey of the parcel (which we may still need), but it does fairly accurately show how the parcel relates to bordering streets and neighboring properties. It also shows the approximate location and scale of some major features within the parcel, including large trees, a stone wall, vegetation boundaries, embankments,  and open areas. (The location of the major trees and other features indicated within the first 200 or so feet from Barber St.--basically those within the yellow areas--is approximate. The location of other trees--those in the green/gray area--have been drawn in loosely to suggest the density of tree cover as the site slopes towards a stream bed.)

Yellow indicates open areas

Brown/black hatch marks show ridges, major slope boundaries

Green/gray indicates thick vegetation growth

Circles with center points show trees and tree canopies

Blue indicates stream and stream buffer

This map depicts conditions on the site as it was at the end of February, 2010. The map was created by Henry Parker, an architect, landscape architect and planner and Allen Stovall, a landscape architect and professor emeritus of UGA's College of Environment and Design.

Thanks to Henry and Allen for putting this together!

You can learn more about the site and about the park project here.

Photos of Site Map at BNA Neighborhood Party

A newly created map showing existing conditions and an old aerial photograph of the Barber St. site on display during a Feb. 27 Neighborhood Party organized by the Boulevard Neighborhood Association. The party took place at Little Kings, a bar on W. Hancock St.

Allen Stovall, a landscape architect and professor emeritus of UGA's College of Environment and Design, answering questions about the site and the park project. The map was created by Henry Parker, an architect, landscape architect and planner, and Stovall.

NOTE: Sorry for the poor photo quality. These are cell phone shots. I forgot my "real" camera. I also wish I had taken a shot showing how many people were at the party--there was a really good crowd--but the party distracted me!

View Site Map at Neighborhood Party

A map showing key features of the Barber St. site as it currently exists will be on display at a neighborhood party Saturday. This is not a plan, but an early draft of a survey showing locations of major trees, cleared areas, slopes and other features of the site as it is now.

Allen Stovall, a retired UGA landscape architecture professor, Henry Parker, a licensed landscape architect, and Dan Lorentz, a park project volunteer organizer, and others will be there to answer questions about the park project.

The neighborhood party takes place at Little Kings, 223 W. Hancock St., from 4-6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 27.

The party is an informal neighborhood get-together organized and sponsored by the Boulevard Neighborhood Association for neighborhood residents.  There will be a bake sale, and opportunities to learn about a variety of neighborhood events and projects.

Gone in 64,800 Seconds

A brush pile moved curbside Sunday afternoon was gone Monday morning. The pile stayed curbside for from roughly 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14 till about 8 a.m.  Monday, Feb. 15--that's 64,800 seconds or 18 hours--when workers in Athens-Clarke Co.'s Solid Waste Department removed it as part of their normally scheduled leaf and limb pick-up rounds in the Boulevard neighborhood.

UPDATE: Stacee Farrell, executive director of the Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful program, reports that the brush pile we created weighed 1.83 tons.

Thanks to Solid Waste for the fast service, and heavy-lifting!

Sunday

Monday

Operation "Move Brush Pile"

Greg Denzin, operating a small excavator, moved a massive brush pile at the Barber St. park site curbside on Sunday, Feb. 14.  Moving the pile will make it easier for  Athens-Clarke Co.'s Solid Waste department to remove it this coming week, when Boulevard neighborhood is scheduled for a periodic leaf and limb pick-up.

It took Denzin and his equipment less than an hour to move the brush pile. Denzin, who owns G&G Landscape Design, tries to minimize his environmental impact. His John Deere excavator runs on bio-diesel, and he insisted on scattering some grass seeds and pine needles to cover tread tracks.

The brush pile before the move

Where the piled used to be

Waiting curbside for leaf and limb pick-up

Thanks Greg!

Thanks as well to Stacee Farrell, executive director of Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful, and Roger Cauthen in Athens-Clarke Co. Landscape Management Division for helping to coordinate the leaf and limb pick-up.

While the volunteer work day originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13 had to be canceled due to snow, Bruce and Jane Travis were prepared to provide some very nice refreshments for volunteer workers; Shawn Doonan of Tarzan Tree Care was poised to offer help and equipment and Ben Myers of 1000 Faces Coffee was set--for the second weekend now--to provide free coffee for the volunteers. Thanks to Bruce, Jane and Shawn and Ben!

Snow Day

Do you have any shots of the Barber St. park site in snowy glory? If so, please send them to me at lorentz.d@gmail.com.

Work Day 2: New Areas Cleared, Trails Blazed

After postponing for a week because of bad weather, volunteers resumed clearing work Sat. Feb. 6 at the Barber St. site.

The ground was sodden, the wind cold and the work day shortened (to allow the ground to drain off a little from heavy rains the night before) but volunteers generated big brush piles while clearing three new areas and pushed forward on trail blazing. Once again 13 people showed up to help, but most were new faces.

Here are photos from Work Day 2:

Karen Freed and Eric Heil haul brush to a pile

Cat Dunleavy pries a Honeysuckle shrub from the ground

Kelly Ridenhour gathers cut vines

David Shillcut with loppers

Gary Crider with tarp

Anna Claire Davis near wall in newly cleared area

Stella, Anna Claire Davis's dog, taking in the scene

Jim Okey clearing out brush

Kevan Williams and Abby Moore on their way up to dump a load of brush

Dan Lorentz tries to cut a vine

Work in the lower terraces as viewed from top level of site

One of the three newly cleared areas

Work Day 2 Volunteers included: "Chainsaw" Charles Apostolik, Gary Crider, Anna Claire Davis, Cat Dunleavy, Karen Freed, Eric Heil, Dan Lorentz, Abby Moore, James Okey, Kelly Ridenhour, David Shillcutt, Stella, Allen Stovall, Kevan Williams

Special thanks to:  Robert Gunn for supplying some yummy sandwiches.

Volunteers Start Clearing Work

On Saturday, Jan. 23, thirteen volunteers started clearing and surveying work on the Barber St. site.  Here are a few photos from that day and some before-and-after shots.

Clearing and surveying work

Allen Stovall whacks weeds.

Marci White with pruners.

Chase Lawrence cuts a downed tree limb.

Greg Denzin (left), Lori Ringhand and Robert Gunn haul a log.

Katherine Melcher (left), Henry Parker and Kevan Williams add notations to a site survey map.

Krysia Haag with tarp.

Before

After

The First Thirteen Volunteers included: Greg Denzin, Matt Elliot, Robert Gunn, Krysia Haag, Chase Lawrence, Dan Lorentz, Katherine Melcher, Henry Parker, Lori Ringhand, Allen Stovall, Justin Widener, Kevan Williams and Marci White.

Special thanks to: Bruce and Jane Travis for supplying snacks, Ida Mae Griffin and Tennie Brookins for use of their driveway and Shawn Doonan of Tarzan Tree Care for the chipper and chipping crew.