Partial landscaping completed at theatre
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POLSON — The south side of the John Dowdall Theatre has all new landscaping, thanks to a grant from the Greater Polson Community Foundation and lots of hard work from Chuck Jarecki.
Jarecki, from the Mission Valley Friends of the Arts, has spent three or four days at the site, cutting down and digging out old landscaping and shoveling out old gravel.
The log building was built in the '30s as part of the Works Progress Administration, part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, Jarecki said. The building has been rechinked and reroofed since then, but it has retained its original landscaping, which had not been trimmed or cut back since it was planted.
“It’s all his vision,” local landscaper Arlene Long said, gesturing at Jarecki with her trowel.
Long donated her expertise and labor to the project also.
After the demolition, Jarecki brought in some railroad ties. He and Long put down landscape fabric and planted six golden spirea bushes and two burning bushes.
Jarecki said Whealon Construction Specialties donated the landscaping fabric, and Knife River-Polson Division donated six yards of washed gravel to be spread for the project.
MVFA member Lucy McCrumb will plant flowers in two half barrels flanking the theatre’s patio doors.Then the landscaping should be done by opening night of “Valley Full of Diamonds” on Wednesday May 20 at 7 p.m.
