PLANTING CELEBRATION PLANNED FOR NORTH HIGH SCHOOL
STORM WATER INFILTRATION PROJECT – MAY 14 AT 9 A.M.

A planting celebration featuring more than 3500 perennials and native grasses is set for Friday, May 14, at 9 a.m. on the front lawn of North High School.  The ceremony marks the culmination a year-long project designed to address significant issues regarding water run-off and water quality in the area of the school.  In the event of rain, the event will be held on Friday, May 21, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

Students, staff, project partners and members of the community are welcome to attend.  There will be a brief program, music, demonstrations, information about the overall project and actual planting of a huge variety of native plants and grasses.  Students and others are expected to take most of the morning to complete the work, which will be followed by a celebration luncheon.

A collaborative effort between the Partners of Scott County Watersheds, North High School, the Riverboat Development Authority, the City of Davenport, Lawns Unlimited, Diercks Excavation and the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District, the project was designed to reduce storm water volumes leaving the site, improve storm water quality through infiltration, improve the visual aesthetics of the basins, and to establish on-going educational programming utilizing the project and site as an outdoor “living laboratory.”

Planning and design have been underway for more than a year, with site clearing and construction starting early last fall.  According to Mark Brockway, project manager, and Curtis Lundy, project publicity coordinator, the effort has been a true team project.  The project was funded in large part by a grant from the Riverboat Development Authority.  Students helped with clearing the area and readying the site for construction, while Marty Diercks and his crew from Lawns Unlimited as well as Dennis Diercks and Diercks Excavation completed actual excavation and construction.  Along the way, there has been support and in-kind donations from many other organizations, including Brockway Land  Planning Associates, Missman Stanley, Prairie Nursery, Acme Signs, Keep Scott County Beautiful, the Davenport Compost Facility and staff from North High School.

Mike Orfitelli, science teacher at North, has been very active in the project – using the project as a learning experience for his students.  The members of North’s Environmental Club have also been involved.  Jim Andrews, principal at North, has seen many benefits to the project.  “In addition to meeting the engineering goals of the project, we are improving the look of our campus and providing a great hands-on learning experience for students,” he notes.  The project will continue as an outdoor laboratory in the years to come as the plants mature and the site takes on different looks over time. 

During the event, there will be demonstrations of different types of seeding and planting techniques as well as displays and explanations of various native plants and the many watershed engineering techniques used on the project.