HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

At Talking Water Gardens, a cleanup job

Written November 13th, 2023 by Hasso Hering

Taking a look at this footbridge at Talking Water Gardens on Sunday.

It must have taken a lot of scrubbing or sanding, or both, to get one of the wooden footbridges at Talking Water Gardens back to looking the way it should.

This bridge is at the back end of the gardens, a system of ponds and waterfalls that the cities of Albany and Millersburg and the ATI industrial company completed in 2012.

The system was built to cool and further clean treated wastewater before it is pumped into the Willamette River. The trails that run through the complex are open to the public seven days a week.

The last time I had seen the bridge was in June. Somebody had taken blue paint — and then white when the blue apparently ran out — to vandalize the wooden railings on nearly half the structure.

On a bike ride through the gardens Sunday, I saw this bridge again. And as you can see, the unauthorized paint job was gone, though traces could still be seen in the cracks.

Gone too were the signs — “No Painting” — that someone from Albany Public Works had attached to the painted one and another wooden bridge that had so far escaped the vandal’s brush.

As for the cleanup and visual damage repair on this bridge: Nice job. (hh)

November sunhine lights up the bridge on Sunday afternoon.


Posted in: Uncategorized



8 responses to “At Talking Water Gardens, a cleanup job”

  1. M.S. Campbell says:

    yes, nice job its true. And a month of so ago they laid new bark on the paths

  2. KinderParkNeighbor says:

    Who cleaned it? Maybe they could come over and clean up the trash dump off of Queen Ave. They can put up a “No Camping” sign.

    Was it one of these volunteers that the city expects to clean the parks instead of the Parks & Rec department?

    • t154 says:

      i know! right…let the anger boil …. they say….

      • KinderParkNeighbor says:

        I have every right to be concerned that my neighborhood park is full of garbage. “Mind your own business.” is what they say…

        • Neb Skram says:

          still boiling with anger? who are you to tell someone to “mind your own business?
          you do have every right to be angry about whatever you want to be angry about buy you have no right to tell someone to mind their own business in the comment section of a news source. quit being a richard

          • KinderParkNeighbor says:

            I said that I was minding MY own business. As in: I use the park, I pay taxes for the park, it is MY business as to how the park is being maintained.

            I’m kinda surprised Hasso let your rude comment through, Richard. He won’t let us call out City Council members for lying.

            Are you one of the people living on the bikepath? Why else would you be angry with me for being concerned about giant piles of garbage in the park?

  3. BB says:

    HH, while you were at Talking Waters were you able to see any water? My sister reported how disappointed she was at her last visit, that it’s getting so overgrown you can’t see much water. Do they have any plans to keep some of the growth under control?

    • Hasso Hering says:

      It’s true that there seems to be more brush than water. I don’t know about plans for managing the brush, but in thee ponds the plan all along was for aquatic plants to grow.

 

 
HH Today: A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley
Albany Albany City Council Albany council Albany downtown Albany housing Albany parks Albany Planning Commission Albany police Albany Post Office Albany Public Works Albany riverfront Albany Station Albany streets Albany traffic Albany urban renewal Amtrak apartments ARA Benton County bicycling bike lanes Bowman Park Bryant Park CARA climate change COVID-19 Cox Creek Cox Creek path Crocker Lane cumberland church cycling Dave Clark Path DEQ downtown Albany Edgewater Village Ellsworth Street bridge Highway 20 homeless housing Interstate 5 land use Linn County Millersburg Monteith Riverpark North Albany North Albany Road ODOT Oregon legislature Pacific Boulevard Pacific Power Portland & Western Queen Avenue Railroads Republic Services Riverside Drive Santiam Canal Scott Lepman Talking Water Gardens Tom Cordier Union Pacific urban renewal Water Avenue Waterfront Project Waverly Lake Willamette River


Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved. Hasso Hering.
Website Serviced by Santiam Communications
Hasso Hering