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Lewis
News March 16, 2022
PRSRT STD ECRWSS
US. Postage Paid Winlock, WA 98596 Permit No. 5
Covering rural communities in Southwest Washington since 1967
Improvements come to J.K. Werden Park
By Lynnette Hoffman The Vader Park Board has been very busy getting their parks upgraded through grants and city participation. The main focus of these updates is J.K. Werden Park. A little history on the park from Kelly Schey, she stated, “J.K Werden Memorial Park is a small .62-acre community park that was established in 2005. The property had been graciously donated to the city by Vivian L. “Tillie” Werden, wife of Joseph Kenneth Werden, a longtime resident whose parents had moved to Vader
in the 1920s and operated a store in town.” The park has different things available to the public. The park currently features a covered pavilion picnic area, public restrooms, swings, half size basketball court, and barbecue pits. It is also the home to Vader’s 1906 City Jail which houses a small community museum and is currently closed due to needed repairs. It takes several grants to get this upgrade, Kelly continued, “So far, we have received four grants for our Werden Park project. Washington State Recreation Conservation Office
(RCO)- Local Parks, BNSF, Ben Cheney Foundation, and TransAlta. The grants, plus park funds saved by the city and parks board, are able to cover all elements of the upgrades. This will include the completion of the parking lot, excavation for the playground site, concrete walking path, additional picnicking areas, playground liner, gravel, engineered wood fiber (EWF), play structures, installation, fencing and park accessories.” “In addition to the already existing half size basketball court, we will now have a tower structure with all sorts of slides, climbing structures, ladders, poles, and a Geoplex wall,” she continued. “There will be a standing teeter totter, 1-2 person standing spinner, swings, new swings and monkey bars. There’s also a train themed structure for ages 2-5, as a nod and tie-in to the park's existing history kiosks that share fun snippets of our town along with the story of the railroads' influence on our town and name.” Kelly Schey is excited about the fun the kids will have. There’s been work on a walking path at the park and it is nearing completion. Kelly provided an update, “It is almost completed with concrete forms and gravel in place! As long as the weather behaves, we can expect to see concrete being poured in the next week or two. The idea is that a looped walking path will increase full park use and provide easier access to the entire park property for people of all ages. It will
Winlock High School students take classes to learn new trades so they can enter the work force after graduation well prepared.
Winlock students hard at work
By Lynnette Hoffman The students at Winlock High School have a new shop FFA leader. Steve Mahitka has been working with the students on hydroponics, a horseshoe project and rebuilding engines. A lot goes into teaching these skills, especially safety. Steve took the time to let us know what his students are up to. Hydroponics are used to grow things that have required soil. With hydroponics, they grow through the use of a water system. “The students are into hydroponics as they are in the plant science program at Winlock High School,” Steve said. “In this program, our curriculum tries to introduce students to a wide variety of ways in which plants can be grown and produced. Through this learning students are learning the basic needs of plants, pH necessities and the nutrients that it will take to grow plants. We are currently growing lettuce plants that the students have started so that they can learn how to grow food in a small space in our classroom. We have a rotary hydroponic unit that we can grow 60 plants in. We started the lettuce from seed See park Page 3 and the students will be learning the process
from germination through harvest.” They aren’t just learning hydroponics, they are learning to work in a greenhouse, Steve continued, “These students are also working on preparing our hoop house for growing out the vegetables and flowers that we will have in our garden and spring plant sale this May.” One of the many things people are doing is upcycling, this means reusing objects or material that is discarded. It’s becoming a very popular way of changing something old into something new. In shop class, students learn to work with metals and wood along with many more. Steve explained the horseshoe project. “The horseshoe project is an introductory shop project for my Agriculture Science students,” he said. “Through this project a student learns to take a used item (horseshoes) and through the use of different shop tools they will turn that used item into a coat hanger and a tool hanger. The students are taught the safety of hand tools and a few of the larger tools in the shop. They work diligently on the project and those that choose to will be See students Page 4