By Dee Camp
Chronicle staff

     Groundbreaking was held recently for a demonstration garden at the Okanogan Arboretum Park off North Second Avenue near the former Western Restaurant.
     Okanogan City Council recently gave permission for the garden, which would allow for demonstrations of good gardening practices and different edible crops.
     Councilwoman Joan Pfeiffer, who works for the Okanogan County Health District, is spearheading the project with money from a state Healthy Steps grant.
     Pfeiffer, Orlando Gonzalez, Dede Lavezzo and the Pathfinders and members of the city crew pulled away the sod cut by the city and turned in 20 bags of chicken manure.
     "The dirt out there is nasty - just hard packed clay and rock," said Pfeiffer. "In the spring we will hopefully till in vermiculite and peat and more manure."
     Soil testing is planned soon, she said.
     One more work party is planned this summer to build raised beds, fence and maybe a compost bin, said Pfeiffer.
     City council members Aug. 5 discussed installing a temporary fence around the park's pond but deferred a decision until the Aug. 19 meeting.
     Jim Brannon, a resident of the area, wrote a letter to the council asking for a chain link fence to be installed. He cited fears a child or animal would get into the pond.
     Mayor Michael Blake said he'd rather not see a fence. He suggested the pond be deepened so it could be stocked with fish as a children's fishing area.
     The pond was dug a few years ago to hold water drained from Elmway so the road and a nearby gas station lot wouldn't flood in the spring. The area originally was a swampy lake.
     Pfeiffer said the city later made the pond shallower and lowed the banks so a mower could tend the grass. Irrigation pipe sits about six inches below the banks.
     She said she'd rather have no fence and added that "parents need to be responsible for their children."
     A chain link fence would have "a prison feel," she added.
     A barrier of hawthorn shrubs was suggested instead of a fence, she said.
     Councilman Craig Nelson said wild roses would work as well and would be prettier and a native shrub.
     Blake said the main concern is keeping toddlers out of the water so some sort of bushy ground cover or shrubs should work.
     Councilwoman Synthia Edwards asked if ivy or something similar could be planted along a chain link fence. Pfeiffer replied that such plants would take several years to become established.
     The pond as it sits "is not amenable to fish," Pfeiffer said, adding that it would have to be aerated.