By Helen Hollyer

Much of the planning and organizational effort required to sustain creation of a science education pavilion in Creswell's Garden Lake Park will have to come from community members, city administrator Mark Shrives told more than two dozen participants during a Jan. 24 workshop.

Participants spent much of the two-and-a-half-hour workshop in one of three groups brainstorming ideas about pavilion design, park signage content and an appropriate dedication ceremony before meeting again as a single group to share their suggestions.

Last fall, the city of Creswell was notified that it was one of four Oregon cities who received Youth Legacy Grants from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and Oregon 150, the group organizing the state's 150th birthday celebration.

In awarding the grant, the Oregon 150 committee deciding which of the approximately dozen applications to fund noted that Creswell's request for a structure with interpretive signage about Garden Lake Park's history, plants and animals met the goal of bringing youth back into nature.

Shrives commented that the project also be a way of honoring Creswell's late mayor Ron Petitti, who had worked tirelessly for years to transform the city-owned former gravel pits into a community park with recreational, educational and aesthetic value.

Written by Lane Council of Governments, the $50,000 grant will provide partial funding for the project, with a required match of at least an equivalent amount of in-kind and cash donations from the Creswell community.

During preliminary comments before the group divided into the three self-selected brainstorming groups, Shrives indicated that the project will have an estimated cost of $143,000, representing $73,000 in cash plus in-kind donations with a similar value.

He said that a grant application has been submitted to the Ford Family Foundation for the purpose of making up all or part of the current cash deficit of $23,403.

One of the largest in-kind donations will come from Eugene's U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Unit, about 60 members of which will construct the pavilion and help re-grade the parking lot. The unit has built about 20 projects in the Eugene-Springfield area beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present.

Ken Nagao of Nagao Hansen Architects acted as facilitator for the design group, who were asked to consider such questions as:

"What ‘design statement(s)' should the pavilion reflect?" "Should the roof structure be designed to be fully enclosed in the future? Skylight?" "If another building or facility is considered for this site, what uses would you hope to include in that facility?" and "How would you connect it to this pavilion?"

The pavilion is anticipated to be a circular, 10-foot-wide, heavy-timber structure with a 25-foot opening in the center and eight signs with concrete storage areas in their bases around the perimeter.

Steel support posts will be set in concrete in holes augured into the ground to minimize impact to the site. The group suggested soliciting quarter sawn oak panels to mask the steel posts from area timber companies.

There were several suggestions for the pavilion's central area, including installing seating around the perimeter and a central monument to Ron Petitti.

Although the current budget does not allow for a closed roof, design group members suggested that Nagao redesign the roof structure to make it possible to install a central skylight in the future, with photovoltaic panels on the south roof panels and plantings on the east, west and north roof panels.

Initially, the roof will be of green composition shingles, and roof water runoff would be directed to a grassy swale area. A hard-surface path would provide handicapped access from the parking area.

Helen Hollyer suggested eventually establishing a garden with plants utilized by the Kalapooia people, such as camas (Camassia quamash), whose bulbs were a food staple, in the wetter swale area and tough-leafed iris (Iris tenax), used to make cordage for deer snares, on a berm formed by soil from the pavilion's support post holes.

Nagao, who has been involved in Ducks Unlimited for many years, suggested that an area abutting the large pond be graded to provide shallow water to attract puddle ducks. Currently, most of the park's ducks are diving ducks that frequent the deep ponds.

Discussing future expansion, the group suggested building a sustainable fish-cleaning station with a water pump and composting area near the fishing dock, with compost to be returned to the Native American plant garden.

Pam Reber of the Coast Fork Watershed Council facilitated the park signage group, which attempted to answer the following questions:

"What are the three most important things to know about Garden Lake Park?" "What are the key educational components that could be included in signage and how can it be interactive?" and "What unifying theme comes to mind for park logos, materials and signage?"

A history time line from the First Peoples through pioneer times and up to modern times was identified as a theme, as were environmental concerns, fish and wildlife (what lives in the park and what should be there), onsite habitats, seasonal changes and others.

Sheila Hale and Christopher Douglass led the group discussing the pavilion's dedication ceremony.

Hale confirmed that former Oregon governor Barbara Roberts had agreed to participate in the event, which is expected to take place between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on July 4, 2009, between the closedown of Holt Park activities and the beginning of the fireworks display.

The group suggested an informal ceremony with dignitaries and their families in casual dress sitting on the ground, on blankets and in lawn chairs, and musical entertainment reflecting the Creswell community's composition and history.

Static displays of aircraft and automobiles could be staged at Creswell's Hobby Field airport, and activity booths could be set up in the Garden Lake Park parking area.

With the pavilion design essentially completed, members of the pavilion design group were encouraged to turn their energy to fundraising and soliciting in-kind donations.