celery pond

There will be a special City Council meeting this Monday, August 31st, at 6pm at City Hall.  The subject is whether or not the City should apply for a seawall grant from the Great Lakes Fisheries to meet the September 8th, 2009 deadline.

Debate will be open to the public, the Harbor Commissioners and Parks Commissioners to allow Council to gather more input on what is appropriate action.

About one month ago (July 20th) this idea was informally introduced in a council workshop by the Steelheaders, a local nonprofit group. The seawall grant proposal was on the Council program on August 17th.  In a deadlock vote, with one council person absent, it was decided to seek more input.

Please come and let your voice be heard.  Should a rigid seawall be sought or a curved stone wall embankment or should other such ideas be pursued?  Should we work together to develop a plan for this new linear park?  Or should the grant be sought and then look at these issues?

Celery Pond Advocates would recommend keeping the green space and more natural shoreline so that the floodplains can operate as best they can.  There is general consensus among the group that more time is needed to coordinate all the needs and issues of the new layout of the linear park - we’d like to contribute ideas as a conservancy working with the Parks Department.

Monday, August 31st, 6pm….come with your ideas or email your council delegate.

The Celery Pond Advocates is organizing a get-together on Friday, August 28th, from 5-7pm to share their continuing support to preserve and enhance the public lands of the Celery Pond area.  We invite Celery Pond members and supporters, along with members of all area clubs to join us.  During the event we’ll discuss what we can do together as a community to blend art and nature in the areas around Celery Pond.

With the recent parkland added to the City of South Haven within the Celery Pond/Dunkley Redevelopment area, the CPA will be exploring avenues of gifts to the City for these areas.

A sculpture by Marian Anderson, a renowned local sculptor, is one of the works being considered.  We will also be raising monies and accepting offers of in-kind services to beautify the area around the proposed installation, as well as raising monies to contribute signage about Celery Pond Wetland to the City.

Join us at the lovely country home of Arthur Frederick, owner of Button-Petter Gallery, and building contractor Mark VanderLeek, just north of Glenn.  See how art and nature come together in a home and natural environment of shady woods, wetland and lake: something to inspire everyone.

Tickets are $35 (of which $25 is tax deductible).  The tickets can be purchased at Wolverine Hardware (420 Phoenix Street) and Whimsy (415 Phoenix Street).   Come join us for wonderful hors d’oeuvres by Suzie Blair and complimentary wine.

(To reserve tickets, please call 269-637-1491, if you are unable to pick up the tickets at the two locations mentioned. ) (Directions will be given with ticket purchase.)

Thirty-nine people attended the Two Rivers Coalition event on Saturday, August 1st.  Everyone was made aware of the importance of conservation of clean waters, along with the risks of overdevelopment in the Black River and Paw Paw River watersheds.

Dave Forrester, head of the 501 (c) 3 organization, heralded this first year’s effort to host such a public event.  It was a successful day, bringing like-minded people together to kayak, walk and enjoy a picnic in Stanley Johnston Park.

Further on the progress of the linear park proposal in the Dunkley Street area near Celery Pond, another round of city meetings brought the Council to a laborious decision.

Rather than readily giving approval to the five parcels of the lands on Black River, including the old DPW building, the ordinance was amended.  The proposed 1.89 acres for a linear park for the people was reduced down to a singular waterfront strip of .48 acres.

Of the 37 acres of public lands which are in public hands, gaining a half-acre of land for the parks department, after over 5 years of people asking to hold their lands, seems disappointing:  a baby step to indicate that the lawmakers are listening to their constituents.

We can only hope that the Council will respond to all the people who have been asking for so long, for more lands to be included in the parks system in that area at a later date.

We encourage the Council to reconsider this new linear park to eventually include the two side arm flanks of lands, C2 and C1 and eventually the entire parcel of DPW footprint land, D1.  Meanwhile, having the riverfront secure for the public, at least at this date, seems something of measure.