copyright The Santa Fe Journal

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Bringing forth a vision
Neighborhood volunteers and the city work together
to spruce up Entrada Park

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Volunteer John Vavruska weeds Entrada Park at the corner of Cerrillos Road and Don Diego Avenue in July. The park is a cooperative project between neighborhood volunteers and the city

By Kate McGraw
For the Journal

Don Diego Neighborhood Association project coordinator Anna Richards pulls weeds from Entrada Park In July. "We're still feeling our way, but with the enthusiastic support of the neighborhood and the City, we've gotten to this point," she says.

Cooperative project

The park hegan as a DDNA dream to "do something" with the scrap of waste land left when the city straightened a jog in the intersection of Guadalupe Street and Don Diego. In. 1998, association members proposed a multi-use pocket park for the 15,OO0-square-foot triangle and that it be named Entrada Park because the location was at the entry from the north into the Don Diego neighborhood and a southwest entry to the Guadalupe-downtown commercial districts.
    The association didn't ask that the city do all the work; it proposed a cooperative project, with the city providing capital Improvement funds to grade the land and install lighting, hardscape and drip irrigation. The association asked to be allowed to design the park and pledged to bring the landscaping to life.
    "It was an experiment, as much for the city as for us, and I'think it's worked out, even though it's taken us longer than we thought," Richards said.
    Neighbors drafted a plan in which they proposed to include three circular sculpture sites, a custom-designed bus stop (since scrapped), blocking off a remnant of old Don Diego to create several parking spaces, a sign identifying the neighborhood entry, winding paths and rock work, and native, drought-tolerant shade trees and shrubs.
    "Why did want to do it ourselves? 'To control elements of the design, and make sure the landscape is drought-tolerant and true xeriscaping," Richards said. "And from our standpoint, it worked." For three years, 1999 to 2002, the park proposal went through "dozens" of meetings hetween the DDNA project team and city bureaucrats as the proposals were reviewed, commented on, changed and re-reviewed
    "To any other neighborhood contemplating this, I'd say: flexib~ty helps, and tenacity," Ricards said. "We drove 'em crazy at times, I'm sure. All in all, I'd say the city staff is very well intentioned, but they had a lot on their plates. Still, I think they welcome good energy from the neighborhoods."
    From 2002 to 2OO4, the City Council approved Capital lmprovement Project status and began installing curb and gutter work. Meanwhile, DDNA Project Team member Laura Wilson, a former DDNA president and renowned landscape designer who had resigned from a career with the National Park Service, created a plan and model.
    "I wanted to create a place for sitting, with meandering paths and circles for sculpture, and a naturalistic planting look, Wilson said recently. She fretted that the "mound" she'd envisioned as a buffer against street noise wasn't as high as she'd desired, but otherwise, said the park is shaping up nicely.
    The city built the curvilinear outdoor bancos and sculpture circles shown on Wilson's design, and Whole Foods, a new neighbor, sent its employees to plant scores of tulips and daffodils. Whole Foods also made a cash donation, without strings attached. Wilson was instrumental there, too.
    "I'd been working closely with Whole Foods in getting its entrance and egress worked out, so I saw them a lot," she said. "The city staffers suggested to them that they give the neighborhood association some money for the park. I was astonished when they gave us 10,000."
    Throughout 2005, neighbors and other volunteers (like the Santa Fe High School environmental students on Earth Day) constructed two dry stream beds using recycled rock provided by the City. With the help of discounts from Plants of the Southwest, Santa Fe Tree Company, and Agua Fria nursery, they planted 35 shrubs trees. They weeded and mulched. The City provides irrigation during the summer but turns it off for the winter months, so the neighbors were grateful for the donation of water from nearby Justin's Frame Shop to keep their new plantings alive. The City provided mulch and the neighborhood volunteers spread it on their new plantings.

To donate WHAT: DDNA Entrada Park Fund WHERE: 1101 Don Diego Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87505 INFORMATION: Call Anna Richards at (505) 989-8363 for information. ONLINE: http://users.hubwest.com /hubert/neighhorhood/

A decision to 'go pro'
    Still, things were looking a little scrubby. Volunteer promises are all well and good, but this is hot, dirty work, and the park was not really making that final push to completion.
    The project team asked the neighborhood association for permission to use the cash balance to hire a professional landscape team, and the DDNA board agreed. It hired Lacy Keil of Environdesign to do a more detailed landscape plan, procure materials, prepare the soil and do the planting. Neighbors agreed to continue weeding and mulching.
    That was our Great Leap Forward," Richards said with a grin, echoing the old Mao Tse Tung motto. This summer, the money spent, the project is back in volunteer hands, although van Hecke said with amazement that Keil still drops by to help. Still to be done? The city needs to repair some of the concrete work it tore up pursuing a water leak under the street, install security lighting and solicit and select the sculptures. (The DDNA has three members on the selection committee.')
    The association is soliciting more donations, both of cash and surplus hardy perennias to be planted this fall. The entry stone still needs to be purchased and carved. And the weeding never stops, although the city's generosity with mulch has helped a lot, Richards noted.
    It helps keep it moist, too," she said. "A day after a rain, any place that's mulched is still wet. Any place that isn't mulched is dry. We're going after that mulch!"
    For the DDNA Project Team, there is great satisfaction in seeing the park that members originally thought would be done in a couple of years finally nearing achievement after seven.
    "It's community work," van Hecke said. "We started it, and we have to finish it. It's clear that we overestimated what we could do just with volunteer labor. It has been a lot of work - but it has been worth it."