Freeway-landscaping advocates raise money, awareness

While the second phase of the Carson freeway will come complete with landscaping, a local volunteer group is still fighting to make sure the first part of the massive roadway isn't left barren.

"We don't want (the freeway) to be an ugly scar in that part of the city," said D. Marie Bresch, a member of the nonprofit group Gardeners Reclaiming Our Waysides (GROW).

Mary Fischer formed GROW in the late 1990s, to raise money and awareness when it became apparent landscaping would not be funded under the state's freeway plan.

Fischer, along with many other Carson City residents and city officials, worried the freeway would be just a concrete slab jutting through the center of town. They say, with the right mix of plants, trees and paths, a freeway doesn't have to be a monstrosity.

Since 1999, the group has lobbied for funding and worked with Nevada Department of Transportation and Carson City parks officials to design aesthetic enhancements of the highway.

GROW's work, said Carson City Park Planner Vern Krahn, has been instrumental in steering the attention of NDOT and the public to the city's aesthetics.

In 2002, state transportation officials mandated that 3 percent of all future highway project funds go toward visual enhancements, ensuring the second half of the freeway would receive some landscaping money. But the first section is still on its own as far as beautification goes, and GROW is still busily trying to raise money through grants and donations.

"Even (phase two) will need more money if people want all the trees and shrubs that are shown in the drawings," said Fischer, GROW's president.

The group is trying to raise $52,000 to pay for the landscape design of an interchange at Arrowhead Drive. Bresch said the interchange, when finished, could be a model of what can be done with plants, rocks and dirt to beautify the area along the freeway.

The cost of landscape construction for the Arrowhead interchange is estimated at $600,000.

GROW has applied for a $26,000 grant from the city, from which it received $7,500 last year.

The group is also seeking grants from the Nevada Department of Transportation and lobbying Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to secure federal aid to landscape the entire freeway.

The group's next major focus is on beautifying what it calls the freeway's "neighborhood gateways," where existing streets will either go over or under the new highway.

GROW estimates those improvements will cost another $300,000 apiece, and, overall, landscaping the length of freeway's first half could cost up to $1.8 million - money which has yet to be appropriated.

"It's still not done," Fischer said.

n Contact reporter Cory McConnell at cmcconnell@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.