With the help of MSU and East Lansing communities, the corner of Grand River Avenue and Hagadorn Road will have a place for people to relax and enjoy Zen-like surroundings.
A group of MSU students worked with city officials to design the East Lansing Welcome Park, a $30,000 park that officials hope will welcome motorists into the city.
Tom Smith, president of Grass Roots Inc., 16262 Chandler Rd., said his company, which donated labor and equipment to do the site preparation and planting, would like to get started as early as April.
The half acre of land was donated to East Lansing in February by the Musselman/Ledebuhr family to be used as a “Welcome to East Lansing” site.
“Sure we thought about it for a little while,” said Rolly Ledebuhr, a broker with Musselman Realty Co., 322 Abbott Rd. “But it was either keep the land or (the city) couldn’t do what they wanted to do.”
“The city had been good to me and I thought ‘Shucks, I’ll give it to them.’”
The East Lansing Parks and Recreation Commission enlisted the help of landscape architecture Professor Jon Burley’s MSU landscape architecture class to help design a master plan of the park.
Sara Putney, a landscape architecture senior, designed the park’s master plan selected by city officials.
“I kind of took the idea from the classes we’ve been through with the landscape architecture program,” Putney said. “I put more horticulture in it because that is what (the city) wanted.
“It has a Japanese theme, it’s kind of like a Zen garden.”
The park will contain a sign that reads “Welcome to East Lansing” near the corner of Grand River and Hagadorn, several landscape beds, an eight-foot concrete walkway that cuts through the center of the park, benches, garbage cans and lighting, said Wendy Wilmers Longpre, a city park and recreation planner.
It also will contain a strip of decorative brick in the middle of the path as well as a stone dry riverbed in the center of the park.
The park is funded in part by The Community Improvement Challenge Grant and by other donations. The city also received many donations for material and labor from many different companies.
“We received $10,000 from City Council in matching funds and four other large cash donations,” said Ron Sprinkel, chairman of the city’s Pride Team, which secured donations for the park.
Professional Turf Management, 2611 Abbott Rd., will donate the irrigation system and excavation, other organizations donated plants and the city received a 50 percent discount on concrete, Sprinkel said.
“I have been a resident of this community all my life,” said Ron Patterson, president of the turf management company. “As residents of this community we think it is important to give something back to the community.
“It will also clean up the eyesore that has been on the corner for so long.”
