About 40 people showed up to weed, plant and garden at the Powerhouse Science Center on Saturday, despite the weather, which included hail and several rain showers.
“We just go under a tent until it ends, then we get going again,” said Tina Marie Trump, president of the Durango High Country Gardeners, who have worked for several years on the gardening at the Powerhouse. “And the wet ground is making it easier to pull weeds.”
The community supported the effort in a number of ways: Durango luminary Ed Zink dropped off 6 cubic feet of topsoil; Powerhouse adviser and donor Wallace Short brought a truckful of wood chips; local company C&J Gravel contributed a dump-truck’s-worth of gravel; and Home Depot, another longtime supporter of the science center, donated numerous plants for the grounds and planters.
In the backyard, gardener Sharon Orr, who started the garden at Escalante Middle School, was planting a cornucopia of vegetables she cultivated for the center, including the Three Sisters – beans, squash and corn – three kinds of tomatoes, and cauliflower, snap peas, eggplant, carrots, lettuce and cucumbers.
“I want kids to see all the different way things grow and where their food comes from,” Orr said.
All of the cleanup is part of the reboot of the Powerhouse after the board closed its doors suddenly May 9 after realizing that financial matters had become critical. Organizers have a tentative reopen date of Sept. 1, but both the facility and the plaza are available for rentals in the meantime to provide some income.
Work also has been happening inside, and some volunteers got a peek. The historical boilers and pipes are being uncovered and becoming the stars of the show, because the Powerhouse’s importance in the history of electric power as the first alternate-current power plant in the country is a key element of its drawing power.
“All kinds of machinery was really blocked in,” Executive Director Nana Naisbitt said. “We’re going to put lights inside so people can see it. I imagine little kids in hard hats and flashlights on treasure hunts, finding scientific artifacts, almost like a scavenger hunt.”
Bill Carver, who led the capital campaign to restore the building, is involved on a newly created Emeritus Board of early supporters.
“These were all things we envisioned when we restored the building,” he said while participating in the cleanup. “But so much money went into the infrastructure, we just didn’t have the funds to do it. This building should work on several levels, like “Shrek” or a Disney movie. Little kids will learn that heat and water make steam, and adults will learn the story of the development of electricity.”
Another new board, an Advisory Board, has been created, and several new members of the working Board of Directors have been recruited. Former President Bill Luthy has stepped down from the board.
The original budget for the restoration was $1.5 million, but after builders discovered asbestos and contaminated soils, it eventually cost about $4 million. The city of Durango’s contribution of the land and building is valued at about $3 million.
“We have something really special here,” Naisbitt said. “We want people to say this isn’t like any children’s museum they’ve ever seen before.”
During the summer, as the Powerhouse reboots, both the plaza and facility will be available for rentals for everything from weddings – including one Saturday night – to corporate events and fundraisers, so the work will support that income flow. But Trump thinks their work means even more.
“I think having it looking good, looking viable, reminds people it’s still afloat,” she said.
abutler@durangoherald.com
To rent the Powerhouse
To rent the Powerhouse Science Center, call Executive Director Nana Naisbitt at (970) 708-0004.
