Group wants to create community center at Fairhaven
Park
DEAN KAHN, for the Bellingham Herald, on Monday, Sep. 22,
2008
It will be a busy six months for members of a new
group who want to turn the caretaker's house at Fairhaven Park into a community
center for people to learn gardening, food preservation and other self-reliance
skills.
On Sept. 8, City Council members endorsed the
proposal from the Center for Local Self Reliance, choosing it instead of two
residents' requests to haul the vacant house elsewhere.
Organizers of the group met last week to begin
their paperwork for nonprofit status, to choose board members, and to discuss
initial steps of their four-year plan for the house and grounds.
| MAX BITTLE | THE
BELLINGHAM HERALD
v To
donate money or to help convert the Fairhaven Park caretaker's house into a
center for self-reliance, send an e-mail to caretakershouse@gmail.com,
or call 715-3828.
Early steps include negotiating a lease with
the city, developing a construction plan, and raising $75,000 by the end of
March.
"We feel like they're attainable, and
we're going to be asking the community for help," said Robyn du Pré, a
founding member of the group and the executive director of RE Sources for
Sustainable Communities. "I think we'll get there."
There could be big problems if they don't.
City Councilman Jack Weiss said the council
supports the project, but wants the group to keep pace with their plan to
remodel the house, install demonstration gardens and get the center up and
running.
If the effort falters, he said, the group
should know that the city could again consider proposals to have the house
moved or demolished.
"I trust them to understand that we're
pretty serious about that," Weiss said.
The house was built in 1914, but has been
boarded up for several years. The adjacent land in the northwest corner of
Fairhaven Park once was home to a rose garden, but poor soil and hungry deer
put an end to that.
Last spring, parks officials sought bids from
people interested in moving the house, but no one responded. When some
community members showed interest in fixing the house, the parks department
issued a second call for proposals.
Three responses came in. Two of them, one from
Richard Taylor and one from John and Lani Fortune, proposed moving the house to
private property. The third response came from RE Sources and the Center for
Local Self Reliance.
The city's lease for the house and grounds will
be at no charge, but that might be the only free part of the project.
Fortunately, the proposal has garnered support from several groups, including
neighborhood associations, Master Gardeners, and from teachers and
administrators at Fairhaven Middle School.
Supporters from all corners will be asked to
contribute and to help raise money, despite the sour economy. Plant and seed
sales are possible, as are benefit concerts, along with sponsorships and
outright donations.
"If we don't do it, we lose it," said
Steve Wilson, another founding member of the group and an active member of
South Neighborhood Association.
While people won't see any big changes in the
house and grounds for a while, a trail, gazebo and two trellises by the house
has been repaired recently thanks to parks workers and to neighborhood
residents who won a $2,000 city grant for the touch-up.
"It's looking a lot better," said
Mary Mullen, who worked on the grant.