Sunbathers, soccer players, sandcastle builders and snugglers.
On Friday afternoon, folks found all kinds of uses for Hood River Waterfront Park’s beach, lawns, playground and planting areas.
The amphitheater’s first organized event will be Sept. 7.
The WCPA and City of Hood River are encouraging people to bring picnics and enjoy live music on the amphitheater at Hood River Waterfront Park from 4-8 p.m.
The picnic event is free and open to all.
On-street parking is available on Portway, Anchor Way, and N. 8th Streets, on the graveled portion of the Luhr Jensen building (just east of the park) and on the south side of the Halyard Building.
“Almost turned the sprinklers on those two,” a sheepish Chris Leonard said, walking away from the water box near the western edge of Waterfront Park. A few feet away, a couple lay curled up together in a kind of PG-rated clinch. And still dry.
Leonard, a city Public Works crew member, went off to find something else to do.
Friday in the newly completed park had plenty going on.
Chelsea Gay and Dan Kaler tossed a Frisbee on the amphitheater lawn, adjusting to the gusty winds.
“It’s Hood River, you just accept the wind and go for it,” Kaler said.
Families picnicked in the shelters that provide a break from the wind while kids covered the climbing wall and clung to the newly installed playground features that spin and twirl.
A mother and her child pounded on the wooden vibraphone, and a group of friends stood in the shade talking about the native plantings around them.
“It’s time to go!” some parents called to their kids playing in the beach sand.
Some youngsters sat on the new rip rap on the east edge of the beach, watching a windsurfing friend take spills in the swells just a few feet away.
A fitting feature at Waterfront Park could be a three-legged stool emblazoned with these names: Port of Hood River, City of Hood River and Waterfront Community Park Association (WCPA).
Those three groups are responsible for the creation and development of the popular shoreline attraction.
Phase 2, the amphitheater, opened Aug. 1 with the removal of fencing installed to give the grass a chance to grow.
Here is a brief history of the project:
2005 – Port of Hood River donated six acres of waterfront property to the City of Hood River, on former industrial property.
2006 — WCPA is formed to raise funds for the project. Greenworks Landscape came up with the master plan, following county-wide citizen input, in association with the city and WCPA.
2008 – Construction begins with grants from Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) and Ford Family Foundation. Additional funds came from Hood River Parks and Recreation District and the city, enabling completion of Phase 1 – the beach and main green.
2009 – Children’s Play area designed with community input, and completed with funds from WCPA and Youth Legacy/ORPD grant. The solar-powered restrooms were added with donations by Scott Sorenson and the late Tod LeFevre of Common Energy.
2010 – OPRD funds and local contributions pay for picnic shelters and new landscape design by J.T. Atkins of Bend. The Adopt-A-Plot program begins.
2011 – Drinking fountain and cleansing shower are added, along with more picnic tables.
2013-14 – Phase 2 planned and completed: amphitheater lawn and landscaping and additional landscaping around the park.
If you have not been down to Hood River Waterfront Park, on Portway next to the Event Site, you will see many changes:
“It’s so great to see it open,” said park co-founder Ann Frodel, Waterfront Community Park Association chair, of Phase 2. “We wanted it to be a multi-use space, spreading people out around the park a little.
“It’s a very well-used park.
“Our association is pretty excited,” she said. “We started seven years ago and it’s now complete.” (Planning began nine years ago; construction in 2007 – see sidebar this page.)
Frodel estimates that a total of $2.7 million went into the park, between grants, in-kind donations and community contributions.
“Much of it is grants, and local blood, sweat and tears,” she said. Phase 2 cost about $517,000.
The city is responsible for the maintenance, but the WCPA and supporters pitch in, too, with annual spring and fall weeding events, and the Adopt-A-Plot program, now in its fourth year. Individuals, families and groups agree to maintain a small portion of the native planting areas that line the beachfront walk and surround the lawn and playground areas.
“We try to do the weeding and maintenance things they (the city) won’t have time to do,” Frodel said.
The original park plan was by Greenworks, with the Phase 2 design by J.t. Atkins of Bend getting a few tweaks from Bell Design and landscape artist Jackie Barone to better meet the city’s plan that Phase 2 be a multi-use feature. The idea behind Phase 2 was to keep the plantings low maintenance, with more trees, and use of bark dust and shrubs.
Smooth basalt squares about three feet wide are located along the top of the amphitheater slope, ideal for sitting and taking in the view of the park, beach, and river.
The WCPA can sit back and admire its work, but it won’t step aside now that Phase 2 is done.
“Our role will be doing more maintenance, annual sign replacement, fundraisers for children’s area, a little less hands on, but we will still be active,” Frodel said.
“I never envisioned it being so fantastic, with such community support, and having it turn out so beautifully,” Frodel said. “It was a little controversial at first, everyone thought it was too windy for a park.” She said the selling point the WCPA used with the city, that the park would attract economic development, has been borne out by the number of new retail, office and manufacturing businesses that are now located 1-3 blocks from the park, in the Waterfront Business Park (see details below).
“It’s been a fantastic economic boon,” Frodel said. “Our whole waterfront has evolved and this is the centerpiece.”
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