Volunteers to build park as memorial to river champion

John Champion Park will be built Sept. 26-27, on land behind the Reno Gazette-Journal building between the river and Kuenzli Street.

Land for the park was donated by the newspaper. Other businesses and volunteers are contributing materials and labor.

Champion, who died last October of a heart attack, was a staunch defender of the river. He lobbied officials on its behalf, planted flowers and wrapped trees along the banks to protect them from beavers.

Bev Conway, a friend of Champion's, said the park's design is a fitting tribute to Champion's cause.

"It's a natural-looking place and that's what John sought to achieve for the river," she said.

Architect Louise K. Kehmeier, with Schoenberg Design Associates, said Champion often said the community had turned its back on the river, so the park design is intended to embrace it.

"The dry cobble bed which runs through the park is a tracing of the river as it runs through the Truckee Meadows," Kehmeier said. "The vegetation includes the natural things you'll find growing along the river, from wetlands to wild flowers."

A memorial to Champion and volunteers who took up his cause will feature concentric circles of cobbles, Kehmeier said.

"The cobbles representing the volunteers are river stones inlaid in concrete," she said. "The center of the circle is a drinking fountain that spills over."

Kehmeier said the concentric rings represent the ripple effect Champion had on his community.

Associated General Contractors is doing rough grading at the site to get it ready for the building project next month.

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