A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
The O’Fallon Parks & Recreation Department and I are pleased to announce that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) employees that reside in the Metro East volunteered their time on Friday, October 14, 2011 to plant a new rain garden at the Family Sports Park. GSK calls their annual volunteer day “Orange Day” and wear orange shirts to symbolize the day.
The O’Fallon Garden Club designed the rain garden and GSK employees expertly installed the plants. We thank GSK for allowing their employees to volunteer their time and thank the more than 30 volunteers for the wonderful job they performed. The new rain garden is a wonderful asset to our Family Sports Park.
This is the first rain garden in O’Fallon and is meant to serve as an example of a rain garden that is used to filter storm water. It was built during the recent park expansion project.
A rain garden is a depression filled with layers of gravel and amended soil, and planted with native plants. The roots of the plants collect storm water run-off, pull it down through the soil layers and filter out pollutants before it returns into our ground water.
When sited and planted correctly rain gardens can decrease the amount of pollution reaching creeks and streams by as much as 30 %. They can also decrease the amount of storm water run-off in a landscape by 90%. In addition to being good for our environment, they are very attractive when used in both home and commercial landscapes.
Residents who are interested in building a rain garden at their homes are encouraged to contact Calvin Beckmann at cbeckmann@ofallon.org, or 622-1566. The Garden Club is always interested in recruiting new members. If you are interested in becoming a member, please visit www.ofallongardenclub.org.
I encourage you to stop by the Family Sports Park and see the new rain garden. The strong working relationship between City Hall and the residents we serve is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
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