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Renovation Chronicles
The Friends will periodically provide notes on the progress of the renovation, passing along any items of interest and updates.
Commenting may be available soon.
Chatting With Gene
Friday, 09 December 2011 16:45
According to Gene, the foreman/supervisor/boss man type dude for this site, apparently all is well and everything is on schedule. As far as demolitions go, this is a straightforward one on a relatively small site. The crew has been getting rid of hundreds of tons of concrete, and ripping up the old pathways to make way for new ones.
There haven't been very many mid-course corrections, except for the fact that it looks like the basketball court asphalt will need to be ripped up and replaced. The original plan was to simply re-surface it, but it was determined that the asphalt was old, and if simply re-surfaced, the court would be a wreck in about a year or so. So, mid-course correction it is.
Also of note was that the original (term used loosely) spray park bit has been excavated. Many of us knew about the spray feature way back in the day, but the actual foundation of the thing has now been laid bare. It is (was) located toward the center of the Park, and now looks like (is in fact) a round shallow concrete pit.
The round red building has large orange Xs on it, so that will be coming down very soon, likely before Christmas, which will be a grand present to most neighbours.
Finally, the dead elm on the SW side of the Park has been .... trimmed somewhat. Now, we're all grateful that most of the truly hazardous branches have been removed, but essentially to leave a dead tree trunk is a little mystifying, unless it' for the usual reason, which is budget constraints. At least it's now far less likely that some unfortunate soul will meet their doom at the hands of the dead elm.
I think that I never shall see
Saturday, 12 November 2011 08:59
A poem as lovely as a tree.
Unless, of course, the tree is diseased, as were 5 out of the last 6 trees that were recently cut down. Some have expressed varying levels of dismay at the removal of trees during the renovation, but we were informed that most had a form of advanced root disease, and it was imperative that they be removed.
Additionally, one tree had an opening to the trunk, in which was found years worth of beer cans, 40 bottles, and random trash.
Generally speaking, a large majority of trees in the Park need work, primarily in the form of pruning. The Friends have a grant to do this, and we'll see how it plays out, but it would be a vast improvement to have the tree canopy raised.
Chain Link Fence
Saturday, 05 November 2011 16:25
We were as surprised as anyone to see the chain link fence go up early Saturday morning on November 5th. This means that construction is imminent. One will also notice the large orange Xs spray painted on the trees, indicating which are set for removal. Many of these trees are not healthy and are hazardous, and many are over 100 years old in any case. If anyone's concerned about the trees, there will be new ones replacing the old ones.
This also put us in a funny, but good position; this was Love Your Park Fall 2011 edition day, and all of the sudden there was a lot less Park to clean up. Raking leaves from the interior when it was going to be demolished made little sense. But we did retrieve the metal FDSP sign from the red building prior to demolition, managed to rake the East lawn, planted some small shrubs in the SW corner, and marveled at the fact that the renovation will in fact finally happen for real.
Many people have put in a lot of hours and work over the years, and a major goal of all of that work is beginning.
Crews of Various Stripe
Friday, 04 November 2011 14:23
Today saw City crews cleaning out the red round building, removing years of accumulated debris. Hopefully, this means that the building will be demolished sooner rather than later.
There were also some fellows spray painting large Xs on the trees slated for removal.