About 50 volunteers, neighbors and friends turned out today to celebrate completion of the outdoor classroom for kids including students at nearby Bloom Elementary. Among those attending: State Sen. Cassie Armstrong Chambers, who provided tremendous support when she was District 8’s Metro Councilwoman. Her successor, Ben Reno-Weber, was represented by his legislative assistant Betsy Foster. Monnik Beer Co. provided refreshments and the Highlands branch of the Louisville Free Public Library had an information table.
Brian Caudill cuts the ribbon with help from (left to right) volunteers Brian U’Sellis, Kristen Millwood, State Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong (holding her son), Jo Shipley and Patti Linn.
Volunteers Brian Caudill and Ernst Trachsel working in the new pollinator garden.
First, we’re building a pollinator garden with a gift of native pollinator plants from Re-Wilding Louisville, a green initiative sponsored by Idlewild Butterfly Farm, Creasy Mahan Nature Preserve, and the Louisville Audubon Society, and funding from the Mayor’s Give A Day Foundation. The garden offers our neighbors, including Bloom Elementary School students and patrons of the Louisville Free Public Library Highlands-Shelby Park branch, a real-life example of the interdependency of nature and our food ecosystem. It also serves as a demonstration garden to encourage the establishment of pollinator gardens throughout the densely populated Highlands area of Louisville.
Blair Leano-Helvey of Idlewild and volunteer Jo Shipley picking up the plants.
Our other addition is a new set of limestone steps, completed earlier this month, that add a second entrance, and join the first entry built in 2018. The new steps were made possible by a $10,000 Neighborhood Development grant from District 8 Metro Councilwoman Cassie Chambers Armstrong (left).
Here’s a photo chronology of the work done by E-Z Construction:
It took heavy equipment to excavate soil to make room for the steps.Limestone steps are stacked in the foreground.A worker tucks mortar into place.Four steps installed, only a few more to go.One of our youngest neighbors, Patrick Reilly, enjoys the steps.
These three photos show the recently completed entrance, paved walk and hand-railing at the western end of the park — the first phase of work that started in December.
Our park achieved a huge milestone recently, when EZ Construction Co. of Louisville began the first phase of development at the southwest end of the property; it all started last month. This is the “Nature Play” space, an open children’s space with tree swings and natural playground equipment such as rocks and finished tree stumps to climb on. (See this design rendering for a fuller description.)
Here’s the backhoe operator at work (left) and the partial excavation for the play area:
Beechwood Park 