Public Works Director Kahle Jennings and Stormwater Operations Manager Kim Ashmore were out measuring the sidewalk area adjacent to the new Hubbub pocket sculpture park on north Tower Avenue in Centralia Thursday afternoon, preparing for the installation of a demonstration “rain garden.”
A vegetation-lined ditch, the rain garden will sit adjacent to the sculpture park in the space between the sidewalk and the curb along Center Street. The area is currently covered by faded, broken asphalt gray with age. Weeds grow up in cracks in the asphalt, the broken sidewalk and the curb.
The rain garden will not only contribute to the beautification provided by Hubbub’s sculpture park, but will provide practical benefits as well. Vegetation will essentially serve as a natural filtration device, absorbing stormwater runoff from the street that passes through cuts in the curb into the ditch. The native plants lining the ditch will capture pollutants that would otherwise flow directly into China Creek.
“I think it’s really going to complement what Rebecca is doing,” Ashmore said. “It’s a partnership between a willing participant and the city.”
The money to replace the sidewalk will come from the city’s sidewalk replacement fund. The $600 to $800 for materials for the rain garden will come from stormwater funds. The city plans to use volunteers to install the rain garden.
“And it offers and esthetic benefit,” Jennings said.
