Student project is not garden variety work

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Some have likened it to a secret garden, although it’s probably been around more than 100 years and has been open to the public in the past.

Still, most current Youngstown State University students had no idea there was a stone garden with sunken terraces behind the university-owned Wick-Pollock Inn at 603 Wick Ave.

But once they found out the spot existed, the students have been in the forefront of the effort to clean it up, offering their time and their backs to the process.

The inn has been closed since 1998, although the university is in negotiations with a prospective operator to restore it and get it reopened.

Erianne Raib, a YSU student trustee and Student Government Association vice president for university affairs, has been a driving force in organizing work parties and securing assistance with the gardens project over the summer.

The SGA got involved last spring when someone informed Chad Miller, SGA president at the time, of the gardens’ deteriorated state, Raib said.

Most students had no idea the gardens existed, she said.

Miller brought the matter before the SGA, which voted to put some unused funds it had into the restoration effort, according to Raib.

The money went to buy a pair of wooden benches, flowers and plants and landscaping services.

“It was completely overgrown — everywhere,” Raib recalled, noting that seven small dump truck loads of brush, stumps and branches were hauled away in the initial cleanup effort by more than two dozen students and university employees.

Raib handled the scheduling of volunteers, including some alumni, throughout the summer to help prepare the ground, mulch and plant.

“We’ve been doing weeding,” she said recently.

The restoration effort so far has concentrated only on what Raib called the “sunken gardens,” three terraces that include a lot of stonework, a wooden trellis over a secluded alcove and a nonworking fountain.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.