Grab some gloves and a shovel, your roundabout needs you.
So says North Bend Senior Planner Mike McCarty, referring to the city’s First Street roundabout, which could use some green thumb assistance and a few flowers.
McCarty has been working with the North Bend Parks Commission on the creation of the Adopt-a-Park-or-Trail program, to “increase civic engagement” and, as a practical by-product of that, to keep the city’s outside spaces well maintained.
The program enlists volunteer groups — sports teams, service organizations, church groups — to “adopt” all or part of a park or trail that they use, and then take care of it.
“There’s all sorts of things that people can do,” McCarty said. Picking up litter and planting flowers are just the beginning. The first group to adopt a park, the Parks Commission, planned to focus on eradicating invasive species, especially blackberries, at its first event Saturday, March 12, at EJ Roberts Park. Volunteers can also trim branches, pull weeds, paint playground equipment, rake leaves, and other things to “make it in some ways their own,” McCarty said.
One group of volunteers is discussing how to develop a community pea patch in the section of park they’re planning to adopt, for example.
The program was developed specifically to give residents a way to feel more involved in and more ownership of their city parks by giving them “the ability to respond to problems that they see,” McCarty said.
Volunteers who adopt a space are asked to hold at least four work events for that area each year. They must provide their own tools, but the city will supply some materials and will handle disposal of things like pruned branches. A group leader must also meet with North Bend Parks Lead Mark Pray to discuss the group’s plans for that park, trail or other area. Materials such as paint or mulch may be provided by the city on a project by project basis.
Finally, each group is asked to notify the city’s Public Works department of scheduled work days, so that staff can prepare for anything that needs to be done in advance, or as follow-up.
Other than these requirements and a few safety rules, McCarty says the groups will basically have free rein to do what they think needs doing. “This is first and foremost an opportunity for people to take part in the care of the facilities around them,” McCarty explained.
It has the added benefit of lightening the burden on the city, while government budgets shrink at all levels. “We don’t have the ability to keep the parks to the level we’d like to.” McCarty said. The expense of the program to the city is minimal, the cost of a background check for each volunteer, and signs for groups who have maintained an area for six months or more.
North Bend has six parks that volunteers can adopt, Gardiner-Weeks, William H. Taylor, EJ Roberts, Si View Neighborhood, Riverfront, and Torguson, although McCarty didn’t expect any one group to adopt all of Torguson Park. There are also four trails, Tanner, Si View, Riverfront, and Meadowbrook.
For information on the program, or to sign up, call (425) 888-7654.
