Last summer, The Oregonian published an article, “A fairy tale park, forgotten by time”, which featured Airport Park located along Rt 18 in McMinnville. One Sunrise Rotarian read the article about the neglect and deterioration of the park over the years because of lack of funding, and was moved to propose this as a project for the Rotary Club of McMinnville Sunrise. The 31 year old club has annually planted trees in the community and volunteered for projects in several other McMinnville parks. The Club agreed to adopt this park too and an offer was made to the City of McMinnville Public Works. The Parks Supervisor eagerly said yes, and a core group of members walked Airport Park with the Supervisor and developed a punch list and timeline.
Monthly, throughout this last year, Sunrise Rotarians met at the park to clear the original paths, de-moss the tables and statuary fountains, trim overhanging branches, remove dead wood, fill in holes along the paths with gravel and spread hogfuel provided by the City. At one point, noting there would be some extra money in the club budget for the year, the club President asked the Parks Supervisor if there was anything more she would like for the park that she could not afford in her budget. Immediately, the Parks Supervisor indicated a sign for the Park actually showing the trails and giving some history of the park would be the ticket, since the previous sign had rotted away. The Sunrise Board of Directors solicited bids and selected a vendor to design, make and install the sign. Although the park was developed in 1977, the former Parks and Recreation Director from that era still lived in the community. He provided a wealth of information about the history of the park and the art features it contains in the form of the Mushroom House and 9 sculpture fountains. That not only provided the history to include on the sign, but resulted in a very interesting morning program for the group, since everyone could relate to the aspects of the park he was detailing. The sign is scheduled for installation on July 28, 2018 at 10am at the park and The Oregonian has been invited to attend.
Last summer, The Oregonian published an article, “A fairy tale park, forgotten by time”, which featured Airport Park located along Rt 18 in McMinnville. One Sunrise Rotarian read the article about the neglect and deterioration of the park over the years because of lack of funding, and was moved to propose this as a project for the Rotary Club of McMinnville Sunrise. The 31 year old club has annually planted trees in the community and volunteered for projects in several other McMinnville parks. The Club agreed to adopt this park too and an offer was made to the City of McMinnville Public Works. The Parks Supervisor eagerly said yes, and a core group of members walked Airport Park with the Supervisor and developed a punch list and timeline.
