Old theme, new plans

by Danielle Switalski
| March 24, 2010 10:44 AM

Landscape Architect and President of Silverline Projects Jennifer Fielder has drawn up a detailed preliminary concept plan for the “Fort Thompson” Historical Park and Visitor Center, redoing what is currently known as the Rose Garden Park and Ron’s Service and U-Haul located in downtown Thompson Falls.

Fielder sees tremendous potential in the 70-year-old park that has fallen into disrepair in recent years. Although the project is only in its preliminary stages, the Thompson Falls city council has already jumped on board, endorsing the project and setting up a sub-committee to help Fielder with the plans.

The first phase of the project was to improve the safety and accessibility of the park for the community by removing hazardous items from the park. First, the city council removed the playground, which was around 60 years old. Fielder said it did not meet any safety requirements as it had jagged metal edges and cracks in the swings.

“It didn’t have the proper safety surface and it would have taken a lot of work to bring it up to standards, and even then it wouldn’t have met standards because the old lead paint and crossbars on it aren’t allowed any more,” said Fiedler. Once realizing how dangerous the playground was for children, the council removed it immediately.

The next step of phase one will be taking out additional hazards throughout the grounds, including removing walking hazards such as dips, bumpy ground and old sprinklers and immediately upgrade the function, safety and appearance of the park for daily passive use and community events. Fielder said she is even more determined to search for funding for a new playground now that the old one has been removed. Should they find funding, phase one of the project could be complete sometime in 2010.

“If you’re playing and running around and not looking you could really take a tumble. We’re looking on taking the vehicle parking out and putting it on the edges of the park so the inside is a pedestrian area and kids can play and people can hold events there,” said Fielder. A lot of the smaller repairs are set to take place during Beautification Days, April 15 and 16. Fielder said Blackfoot Telephone company, Silverline Projects and city crewmembers will spend these days removing old curbs and signs and make it more user friendly without spending money on it.

The Fort Thompson Project is now in a transitional phase with a preliminary draft drawn up. Fielder said she wanted to take the time to get her ideas out to the community and organizations to get their feedback before taking the next step in looking for sponsorship and grant money.

“Right now I’ve been running the idea up the flagpole for the community to see if they like that idea or not and if they do, which they seem to, we get into the detailed planning stages and fundraising so I’m at that transition right now,” said Fielder.

Fielder has developed a creative draft of the plan that will delve into the history of Thompson Falls to create an accessible, user-friendly park. The Rose Garden Park used to be an actual rose garden back in the late 1930s and early 40s where volunteers from the community would plant their roses. Now all that is left are old mounds sticking out of the ground.

Fielder said she started envisioning a way in which this project would be more exciting for the community and that is when she came up with the idea to incorporate a historical theme centered around David Thompson. The rough draft of the plan details a fort styled theme where construction and materials used will be hand built out of timber and boulders similar to those used 200 years ago.

“We can make our own (benches) with the materials we see rolling down Main Street every day, trucks full of logs and stones,” said Fielder.

Fielder is confident they will be able to get sponsorships and grant money once she starts searching for it. If everything goes well, the entire project will be on a three-year plan.

“There’s a lot of different grants available, tons of grants and sponsorships and that’s part of why I tried to design in it a creative way because you need to compete for those grants and your project needs to stand out as something really special and we have a special project now that I think will do really well when we take it out to get sponsors and grants,” said Fielder.

In addition to upgrading the safety and functioning of the park, which is phase one of the preliminary plan, phase two details bringing in a waterfall sculpture, picnic tables, a stockade fence, stone walls, and some permanent historical displays. This phase is under design and could be ready for implementation in 2011.

Phase three would include the “proposed inter-agency visitor center with public restrooms, a community directory, a special events parking lot, a rose garden, landscaping, crosswalks and walkways, a drinking fountain, bike rack, signage, and other amenities to complete the project.” Preliminary planning for this phase is in progress and is anticipated to be ready to go in 2012.