Reflections capture fall season in fountain

By Denise Dick

A free Fall into Fun festival is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the gardens.

YOUNGSTOWN — Fall is a time of change, and the fountain at Mill Creek MetroParks’ Fellows Riverside Gardens is undergoing a transition of its own.

The K. Calvin Sommer Fountain stopped working a few weeks ago, but because it’s slated for rehabilitation in the next round of improvements in the gardens’ master plan, the park didn’t want to spend money to fix it.

Gardens employees didn’t want to just leave an empty basin there either.

“We were at the fair booth and started brainstorming and came up with the idea of a sculpture that should be reflective,” said Keith Kaiser, horticulture director.

From there, the gardens graphic designer, Julie Pavalko, got inspired.

“She went with the forestry crew and picked out the trees she wanted,” Kaiser said.

The small trees were bound together with multicolored twine to stand in the fountain basin. A volunteer, at Pavalko’s suggestion, cut squares, triangles and rectangles from Plexiglas to provide the reflective element.

The shapes were hung with string from the tree branches to complete the sculpture.

“She said that the reflections are our future and our past, either one,” Kaiser said.

“It’s also like water and it’s kinetic too, like the fountain,” said Anita Wesler, horticulture educator.

The piece has a different look depending on the time of day and the angle of the sun, Kaiser said.

“Our rangers say it’s really something in the moonlight,” he said.

The plan is to keep the sculpture in place into the winter and for the Gardens by Candlelight event.

“Photographers are having a lot of fun with it,” Wesler said.

They try to select the right piece of Plexiglas and the right angle to capture the reflection of the gazebo or the D.D. and Velma Davis Education & Visitors Center.

Sara Loth of Austintown, visiting the gardens Wednesday, likes the new addition.

“I think it’s beautiful,” she said. “When the sun hits the glass and reflects it, it’s very pretty. It’s great for fall.”

Others can view the sculpture at the Fall into Fun, a free family festival, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the gardens. The event features food, entertainment, crafts, plants, children’s activities, displays and gardening experts to answer questions.

The festival is part of the gardens’ golden anniversary celebration. The pumpkin walk, traditionally conducted in the fall at the gardens, will resume next year.

Free shuttle service is available from the Slippery Rock and Calvary Run parking lots. Parking also will be available in lots off of the McKinley Avenue gardens entrance and throughout the surrounding neighborhood.

Festival attendees will also receive a daffodil bulb, marking the gardens’ 50th anniversary. The daffodil’s color matches the golden anniversary.

Gardens crews will design a new look for the fountain this winter with an aim to begin construction in the spring. The master plan, unveiled earlier this year, lays out plans for additions and improvements at the park over the next several years. The first step, completed this spring, was installation of a brick path from leading from the fountain to the gazebo. Besides the fountain rehabilitation, the next phase calls for a path from the gazebo through the woody plants collection to the South Terrace.

The shape of the fountain’s basin will remain, but the new version may include lighting or interactive components. Kaiser said it will also retain the name, K. Calvin Sommer Fountain, dedicated in 1977, in honor of a former park commissioner. The Sommer family as well as the Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens are contributing to the new fountain.