MILL CREEK METROPARKS $78,500 master plan slated for gardens

Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens is footing the bulk of the bill.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Just a few of the things that will be addressed in a $78,500 master plan for Fellows Riverside Gardens are the entrance to the gardens, noise emanating from Interstate 680 and an interactive garden.
Mill Creek MetroParks board approved the plan earlier this month, awarding the contract to Marshall-Tyler-Rausch LLC, a Pittsburgh landscape architectural firm. The Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens is funding the majority of the cost, said Carol Potter, park spokeswoman, although the exact amount hasn't been determined.
The group's fund-raising efforts are ongoing, she said.
Keith Kaiser, park horticulture director, said the gardens has used landscape architects to guide it along since it started. The last master plan was developed in the mid-1980s and was the genesis for the D.D. and Velma Davis Education & amp; Visitor Center, he said.
"We have met a lot of those goals, and we thought it was time to start working on the next 10 to 20 years," Kaiser said.
Work is supposed to begin later this month and take a year.
MTR is one of only a handful of landscape architects in the country that work almost exclusively with public garden areas, he said.
"We're very fortunate to have them only about an hour away," Kaiser said.
Where money will go
One of the items to be addressed in the plan is the gardens' entrances, off Mahoning and McKinley avenues, and their appearances.
"Coming off of Mahoning Avenue at the entrance at the front, the first thing you see is the maintenance building," he said.
Improvements also are needed at the gardens' maintenance facilities, Kaiser said, noting that that also will be included in the plan.
"We also have a serious noise problem coming off of I-680," he said.
Part of the gardens overlooks the busy freeway.
Because roughly 350,000 people visit the gardens annually, grass doesn't hold up under all of the foot traffic. Another item the plan will examine is installation of a hard surface foot path.
An interactive garden was recently added to the facility and the plan will address how that can best be used an supported. "It will help to draw young families and mothers with strollers," Kaiser said.