trees for Jefferson Park update

Just a brief update on the Friends of Jefferson Park. If you have an interest in joining the FOJP, just drop me a line. There are no dues, just a commitment to help on projects as they come up.

Thanks to the Department of Public Works for mowing the hillside of Jefferson Park as well as the base of the park along Cedar Street, it looks so much nicer. Special thanks to Connie Samuels, the Vice-President of the Friends of Jefferson Park for heading up our “vegetation control” committee, and keeping in close contact with the folks responsible for the mowing.

Thanks to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities for the new water fountain, new kiosk, freshly painted and lit bandstand, new sidewalks, as well as their assistance with getting electricity and a water source for our soon-to-be planted Holiday Tree. Special thanks to Mary Lois, Linwood, Floyd from Parks, as well as Norm and John from DPW for meeting with the FOJP to personally discuss our tree planting project and other park improvements.

Our tree planting project has been thrown a couple of curves, but I think we can make the best of it, with additional involvement from the community. Some small details may change, but I believe the following plans are fairly stable. As of today, this is the current status of the project:

Park and Recreation has agreed to donate 7 trees for Jefferson Park- 6 will be placed along the top of the hillside to replace missing trees and one Southern Magnolia will be purchased to be placed where the Holiday Tree was last year. The new Holiday Tree is being located near the bandstand for ease of lighting and watering, and to better lend itself to community events.

DPW/Urban Forestry has agreed to place the 7 original grant trees on park land along the streets surrounding the park.

DPW/Urban Forestry will also place an additional 6 trees (using Adopt a Tree Program donations) on park land along the streets surrounding the park.

And here is the part about community involvement…Parks and Recreation will assist us in purchasing wholesale trees/ornamentals of our choice with donated funds from the Adopt a Tree for Jefferson Park Project, and the community will do a tree planting in the park to complete our plan. Parks and Recreation and Public Works will assist the community in the tree planting. By purchasing trees and planting them ourselves (with help from the City), we can purchase more trees/ornamentals than we intitially planned. If you want to make a donation to the fund, or help with the tree planting project please let me know. I will let everyone know when all the details are finalized and a date is set for the planting. In the meantime, please pray for rain.

This means that 22 new trees will be going into the park, plus the number of trees/ornamentals we purchase for the tree planting project. In the end, I think this final proposal will give us a better product than the initial plan, if you subtract all the stress. There has been no date set for the tree planting, but it will occur some time this Fall/Winter.

A special thanks to Mike and Maria Onsel, Elaine Odell and John Gerner, Connie and Kenneth Samuels, Phyllis and Dillard Tupponce, Sam and Leah Smith, Stacey Moulds and Charlie Field, Chris Jones and “The 522”, Dr. Tracy Citeroni, Daniel and Monica McGee, Lora Tothman and Joshua Cooley, Dixon Kerr, Cynthia and Gray Oliver, Karin and Larry Schaftlein, Alisa Bailey, Karen Flanders, Tom and Julie O’Kelly, Chris and Kristin Friedline, Ralph Oliver, Bill Hartsock and Jen Black for donating to the Adopt a Tree for Jefferson Park Project.

Thanks for everything you do to help the park and the neighborhood. Your continued support and enthusiasm is most valued.

Bill Conkle, President
Friends of Jefferson Park
junkifunki@aol.com

Yesterday the roof of the bandstand at Jefferson Park was re-shingled. It was repainted a month or so ago and looks pretty good. Thanks to the folks at Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities!