Three Valley groups combined forces to clean up North Bend’s Torguson Park on Saturday, May 3, completing in about a day a task that would have taken “forever” for city staff to complete.

The park, particularly the corner that a group from Cascade Covenant Church just adopted through the city’s adopt-a-park program, had been a huge mess since April 25, when an early-morning explosion on North Bend Way littered the space with debris both large and small, and lifted the roof off the restroom and storage building.

The park was temporarily closed during the day while city workers cleared all of the large physically dangerous debris, and the restroom building is closed indefinitely while the damage is assessed. Park users didn’t find much to appeal when they were able to get back inside.

“There was so much garbage and debris all over the ground,” said North Bend Senior Planner Mike McCarty, “and tons of tiny little pieces of foam and plastic … something that would take a couple of people forever to pick up.”

Instead, it took a crew of about 30 people a few hours to fill “many, many garbage bags” with the debris said McCarty. Although their timing was perfect, the church group had been planning a cleanup of the park for weeks, and the work party was scheduled long before the April 25 blast that made the cleanup so necessary.

Over on the baseball fields, Snoqualmie Valley Little Leaguers were picking up tiny bits of glass and other debris, and volunteers from the Austin BMX Club were taking care of the bike area, rebuilding a jump and doing general cleanup, too.

“The volunteers just did a phenomenal job,” said McCarty, “Now it’s just gorgeous.”

Learn more about adopting a city park at http://northbendwa.gov/index.aspx?nid=188.

The Torguson Park bike park, covered in blast debris earlier this month, following an April 25 explosion next door.

Volunteers with Cascade Covenant Church made short work of the mess at Torguson Park May 3

Helpers of all ages renew the bike jump at the park.