By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD — There is a lawn now in Forest Park where Beate Bolen, a former president of the Springfield Garden Club, envisions a greenhouse surrounded by gardens.
She predicts visitors to the Forest Park Horticultural and Learning Center will be admiring the beauty of flowers and plants but learning how to grow them themselves.
“It’ll be a focal point for horticulture here in the park,” Bolen said. “The gardens in the park are wonderful. But this will be an attraction.”
The city first started talking about a horticultural center back in 2019. It’s an attempt to recapture the feel of Forest Park more than a century ago, when it boasted greenhouses and a show garden. The plan is to host flower and bulb shows, as well.
On Friday, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, announced a $1 million earmark for the Horticultural and Learning Center.
“A city in some measure has its reputation acknowledged by its commitment to open space, green space, and particularly a public park system. And Springfield’s fortunate. It has a spectacular public park system,” Neal, a former Springfield mayor, said at the announcement. “I think anything that we can do to enhance it is important.”
Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said the city has spent $140 million on city parks during his administration.
Neal said the federal government has contributed “tens of millions” to that total.
“I’m such a product of the city park system. There’s not an inch of the city park system that I haven’t played on,” Neal said.
And he defended the earmarking practice, called congressionally directed spending in official language.
The requests, he said, come from universities, hospitals, governments or, in this case, the garden club. It’s not a top-down process.
And the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, this kind of spending power.
In Forest Park, the $1 million will go to the design, permitting and construction documentation needed for the center, said city Parks, Buildings, and Recreation Management Director Tom Ashe.
He expects to start putting that design work out to bid in a few months and have it completed in early 2027. That design will give an estimated cost and a timeline for the rest of the project.
The Garden Club regularly fundraises for the project with plant sales, and Ashe said the city is seeking more grant funding opportunities.
