Let's Make Sure Rome's "Central Park" is in the Master Plan!

This would be a great time for friends of Rome's "Central Park" to contact the city's parks and rec department about the parks master plan they are working on.

Here's the comment form for the master plan ---

I certainly want to promote sensitive development of walking and bike trails, boardwalks, and wildlife viewing stations in the city's Burwell Creek, Burwell Forest, and City Duck pond -- connecting the beautiful Jackson Hill trails to Ridge Ferry Park and the Riverwalk trail system. There should be space for a little parking and trailheads off Riverside Parkway near the tracks as well as off Dogwood at the Duck Pond and off Vaughn Road near where the chipper equipment is now located.

With this new master plan, I hope our dream of a "Central Park" will finally begin to take shape! 

An article about the Master Plan fro today's Rome News...

Gleaning Facebook: Rome's "Central Park" Illustrated

It will come as no surprise to my friends that I love the centerfold of the new Chamber of Commerce magazine Bridges. It is a beautiful panoramic view of Rome from an unusual perspective - probably a camera on a drone over the flag atop Jackson Hill. Fully half of the photograph is a section of what I like to call Rome's "Central Park". I wish we'd had this photo during our battle to save "Central Park" five years ago and before. How thankful I am that that battle was eventually won, and ALL that greenspace you see here in the very heart of our city is now preserved for our posterity in this river city.

What I call Rome's Central Park is

• the Riverwalk and RidgeFerry Park along the Oostanaula River,

• the Jackson Hill and Blossom Hill public property along Dogwood Drive, Vaughn Road, and Reservoir Street.

• and the 80 acres of Burwell Creek, Burwell Forest, and the City Duck Pond.

Together those properties give Rome an amazing greenspace full of wildlife and botanical beauty just blocks from Broad Street and along the Turner McCall and Riverside Parkway thoroughfares.

We the People of Rome are the stewards of this property during our lifetimes and through our city commissioners must direct its careful development for educational, recreational, and environmental use by ourselves and those who come after us. I hope I live to see well-designed bike and pedestrian boardwalks, trails, and observation stations/platforms connecting Jackson Hill to Ridge Ferry through the Burwell area. 

Comments

Howard Smith
I call it Terrell Territory

Betty Smith Franklin
done.

Michael J. Burton
Oh me of little faith. Didn’t think this was possible since big money wanted to develop this. Ya da man well worth your fight 

Joe Cook
Terrell Shaw, thank you for leading this effort. Last weekend, I cycled the PATH Foundation's South River and Arabia Mountain trails which included several boardwalks over wetlands. WoW! What great trails those are! We need to get serious about developing similar trails through the Burwell Creek wetlands. Here's some video of one of the boardwalks!

(Terrell: Sorry - I couldn't get the video to work from Blogger.)

Rosemary Chubb Shropshire
Awesome 

Ann Gore
Thank you Terrell and Sheila for working so hard to save this beautiful green space!! Love Rome!!

Terrell Shaw
It took a crowd of folks — thanks to the scores of folks who stepped up on short notice to make a big difference.

Gleaning Facebook: A Walk Through Burwell Wetland

Thank you to the voters in the city of Rome who sent such a clear message last November that we want our dream of a Central Park preserved for our children and grandchildren. Combining the city's beautiful and historic Jackson Hill property with our wonderful Ridge Ferry Park and thence our amazing nework of Riverwalks by preserving the 80 acres of Burwell Creek property. Here's our original plea:

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Save this mature forest from clear cutting then filling in, paving, and covering with apartments for folks who would never dream of sending their children (God forbid) to public school!

Share, share, share. Spread the word. Find at least ten new votes for change.

Vote NO incumbents.

Save Rome's Central Park!

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AND you the citizens overwhelmingly voted for our two leading candidates, gave slight majorities to three incumbants, and clearly rejected two incumbents -- leaving one of them on the commission by about 30 votes despite his minority support.

NOW, keep alert. Attend the City Commission caucusses and meetings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. Remind the commissioners of our clear wish to use this city property as park land forever.

Lots of violets blooming around the wetlands today.

The Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is prettiest right now with the glossly red and green spring leaves unfolding. But don't touch.

Star of Bethlehem

Look at the tiny fresh clean spring leaves of Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and the huge hairy Poison ivy vine.

The maple samaras are everywhere right now. The Box Elders (Acer negundo) or Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum) may be the likeliest parents of this potential maple tree. I always thought Samara would make a great girls' name.

The beavers love the cambium layer of the trees. These trees seem to have survived the beaver attacks, so far.

See the recent beaver damage on these trees. A beaver lodge is in the background across the water to the right of the three big trees in the center.

Another invasive, the periwinkle (Vinca major)

Trails, cleared by some large machine have appeared recently over the land that used to be a landfill. These have uncovered a good bit of debris from the old landfill: carpeting, bottles, jars, etc. What's going on? Why disturb the landfill?

The early red leaves of some of the maples, are like flowers of spring.

Gleaning Facebook: Valentine Tree

From Stacy Cates: Happy Valentine's Day from Burwell Creek.

 

Gleaning Facebook: Mother Nature Has Impeccable Timing

This op-ed from Chad Johnfroe was printed in the Rome News Tribune today,  January 15, 2016--

Mother Nature has impeccable timing.

Just a couple of weeks before newly elected Rome city commissioners were to be sworn in, some eight inches of rain fell on Rome and North Georgia, raising Rome’s three rivers to heights not seen since the 1990s.

It was as if she was casting her own ballot on the issue that motivated Rome voters in the November election, leading to the removal of one long-time city commissioner and the election of two new commissioners.

That issue, of course, is whether or not a large tract of city-owned floodplain and wetlands surrounding Burwell Creek and adjacent to Riverside Parkway should be filled and developed into a strip mall dubbed “CityCenter.”

The rain that fell lifted the Oostanaula River to nearly 30 feet — the biggest flood since March 1990. Floodwater spilled out of the river’s banks, covering Ridge Ferry Park, and creeping into the fields, pastures and yards of property owners in low-lying areas. Thankfully, there was limited serious property damage.

 If not for Rome’s levee system and the dams at Carters and Allatoona lakes, it could have been much worse.

As for the city’s Burwell Creek property, it filled as did the rest of the area’s still undeveloped floodplain. If not for these places, it could have been much worse.

How much water does the 50 acres of floodplain adjacent to Burwell Creek hold? Lots! During the peak of the flood, portions of the proposed CityCenter development site were under at least 14 feet of water. By conservative estimates, the area held more than 130 million gallons of water at that flood level — enough to fill nearly 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

And, this flood was by no means the “big one.” During Rome’s worst flood on record, the Oostanaula topped out at 40 feet, and even since the construction of Carters Dam upstream in 1977, the Oostanaula has reached above 30 feet three times.

In fact, the Burwell Creek floodplain begins filling at river elevations of just 16 feet, a high water mark that happens regularly. Since 2009, the Burwell Creek floodplain has filled on at least 50 occasions.

Remember, this is the very place hometown developers Ledbetter Properties want to build a strip mall. To keep their retail center dry, they’ll have to fill those 50 acres with at least 20 feet of dirt. Once built, floodwater will instead be routed to giant holding ponds adjacent to the retail center

Will these holding ponds protect us during the “big one?” if engineered on a grand scale correctly, presumably so.

However, the better question to ask is: Should the city support and even finance this engineering when it could preserve the property and the important services it provides that were so clearly illustrated during the “Holiday Flood of 2015.”

In November, Rome voters sent a clear message to the City Commission with more than 60 percent of the vote cast in support of preserving this land. An online poll performed by this newspaper following the election showed 85 percent support for preserving “Rome’s Central Park.” Even developers that last September were considering building an apartment complex overlooking Burwell Creek have now cast their lot elsewhere.

Though Mother Nature has cast her vote, she doesn’t have the final say. Only the Rome City Commission can prevent the destruction of the city’s Burwell Creek floodplain and wetlands. If the election results didn’t speak to them, perhaps the flood did.

Chad M. Johnfroe is president of the Coosa River Basin Initiative board of directors.

Gleaning Facebook: Burwell Wetlands In the Flood

From CRBI:

[Click picture for video]

Join CRBI this Friday, Jan. 1, at 1 p.m. for an exploration of the Burwell Creek wetlands and floodplain, some 60-acres of city-owned property that is slated for development into a regional shopping center. Recent high water has filled the proposed building site with 1 to 12 feet for water, and the best way to explore it now is via canoe or kayak. When you've paddled this land, you'll ask yourself: "who in their right mind would build a shopping center on this property?" This trip is free and open to the public. To reserve a canoe or kayak, e-mail Joe Cook at jcook@coosa.org Meet at the Burwell Creek parking area for Ridge Ferry Park at the intersection of Turner McCall Blvd. and Riverside Parkway (behind Starbuck's).

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Virtually all of the Burwell Creek Natural Area is flooded. Today would have been a great day to film it from a kayak, and yet I, exercising a bit too much caution, foolishly discouraged that. Now that I’ve gotten out and seen it for myself, I repent.

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Jim Ware's Post:

"Today I got the full scope of Burwell Creek Wetlands importance... as pretty as it may be down in there, regardless of the obvious educational or recreational uses...it is a tool and its main use is and should be to hold flood waters. " - Jim Ware

 

Gleaning Facebook: Burwell Today

The beauty of the natural world never gives up - it goes on about it's business of making the world a better place, no matter what we do to it.

I refuse to "like" this one! Chinese privet is about my least favorite plant. It has replaced acres of natives along the Oostanaula. Its only redeeming feature is its attraction to the little feathered dinosaurs that flit through it eating those black berries --- but then the birdies even join the privet conspiracy to replace every native species with privet by planting and fertilizing the seeds simultaneously all over creation!

Stacey Cates: Here's the same path when dry.

This is one of the pathways through the forest that is dry when there's not so much rain (see pic in comments below). My shoes and bottom of my jeans got kinda muddy in just one squishy area right after walking under the Riverside Drive bridge, but after that there was plenty of dry land to walk on. Just the lower places in the forest were filled with water.

Susan Renee: "blighted" land... looks beautiful to me!