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If all goes as planned, Springfield will have a new botanical center by the end of 2010. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…

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Right now, all that indicates there will be a new building perched atop the hill above the lake at Nathanael Greene-Close Memorial Park is a line marked in the grass where the structure will sit and a sign that tells you about the botanical center.
But, by the end of next year, the new center should be finished. George Deatz, president of Friends of the Garden, which has been working to raise money for the facility, says the botanical center will be an office building with some community rooms in it. The 12,800-square-foot building will be home to University Extension offices, Springfield-Greene County Park Board offices and Friends of the Garden…

"It's going to have conference rooms, labs, classrooms for instructional purposes. It's going to have a lot of public areas, and that brings us to the funding that's left."

Money for the building itself is already available. About 80,000 dollars is left to raise for the furnishings that will go in the public spaces. The total cost of the center is just over 4 million three hundred sixty-seven thousand dollars.
The Park Board put out a notice to contractors May 15th to bid the project. Bids are due by June 18th. Deatz says construction could start on the new center in the early part of August with completion in 12 to 13 months.
It’s taken Friends of the Garden more than eight years to get to this point…

"We started out with a 4.3-million-dollar project, and in 2006, the parks 1/4 cent sales tax was set up to generate 3 million of the total funds needed for this, so the rest of the funds have been raised through public and private efforts."

The park already contains 21 gardens including an English garden, a hosta garden, a rose garden and more. By the time plans are completed, there will be a total of 41 gardens. An arboretum on the site will eventually contain all of Missouri’s native trees. University Extension Master Gardeners have a demonstration garden at the site that contains a variety of plants, including vegetables. And a butterfly house opened at Close Memorial Park a couple of weeks ago.
Deatz is excited about the educational opportunities at Nathanael-Greene/Close Park, especially with the addition of the botanical center…

"You know, you might look at a library of books, such as the library we have on South Campbell--the Library Center. This is really kind of a library of plants. One of our board members thought of that statement, and I think it is very appropriate to what we have going on out here."

Deatz says the park and all that it offers are great amenities for Springfield. He says the per capita spending on gardening in the city ranks in the top 3 to 4 in the nation.
Two summer festivals are planned to celebrate the ongoing development of the Close Gardens. The first Greater Ozarks Butterfly Festival will be held July 11th and 12th, and the Fourth Annual Bluegrass and Blossoms concert and fundraiser will be on July 18th.

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