PEBC welcomes more space

• PEBC

Julie buntjer /Daily Globe Prairie Ecology Bus Center Director Chrystal Dunker welcomes the arrival of a temporary classroom facility at Sparks Park. The building will allow the organization to expand programming, while also serving the community’s needs for meeting space.

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LAKEFIELD — It’s still resting on a wheeled flatbed and it takes a ladder to reach the front door, but Prairie Ecology Bus Center Director Chrystal Dunker is excited nonetheless about a new classroom that will soon be filled with children absorbing knowledge about nature.

After years of discussion and several months spent working on the details, the PEBC and the city of Lakefield are solving space issues with the purchase of a used classroom facility. The building will be anchored on city-owned land at Jackson County’s Sparks Park on the north side of Lakefield.

The 28- by 70-foot building contains two classrooms and was previously used as overflow classrooms for the Eagle Lake School District. Dunker said the classroom cost $23,000, which included delivery. Over the course of the next month, the costs will more than double as footings will be poured and city water and electrical lines will be installed. The hope is to have everything ready so the classroom can be put in place in early August and functioning for programs this fall.

The building provides a much-needed space for PEBC programming and, after restrooms, showers and a storm shelter are added next year, will also meet the needs of campers utilizing the campground that was completed last summer. Dunker said grant dollars will be sought to help fund the restroom project.

“For years we’ve talked with the county about getting bathrooms out here,” she said, adding that a meeting is planned with county commissioners this month to discuss their involvement in the classroom project.

Having a classroom building now will save on some of those estimated costs.

“The price was a whole lot better than building new,” Dunker said.

The classroom’s arrival hasn’t in any way halted plans for the PEBC to one day build a new nature/interpretive center in the park.

With the PEBC and city sharing the space, Dunker said the classroom will also be available for scheduled rentals for everything from meetings to family reunions.

Just one classroom in the new building is larger than PEBC’s office headquarters, which had a small classroom that could cater to groups of less than 10 people.

“The size of this building will greatly improve our ability to host more than 10 people, which is very exciting,” Dunker said.

In the past, popular programs have forced PEBC staff to move events off-site, which Dunker said takes away from what they want to accomplish at Sparks Park.

“If we can keep things here in the park, instead of at the Community Center, it builds awareness to the fact that we’re here,” she added. “It’s rather exciting. We can think bigger than we have before.

“We want to serve Jackson County, but we also want to expand to neighboring counties and communities to come here,” said Dunker, adding that she is looking at adding more programming in particular for adults and teens.

Children’s programs offered by PEBC are well attended, as are family-centered events.

This summer, the PEBC is leading a popular garden camp for kids every Monday, in addition to hosting the Jackson County Bird Club, Storybook Science for preschoolers and a variety of other programs.

Eventually, Dunker said she’d like to offer educational programs onsite to teach people how to manage invasive weeds and replace them with alternative plants, and she has other ideas as well.

Dunker said the ultimate goal is to develop the nearly 35-acre Sparks Park as an educational park complete with signage and interpretation of things found there, from prairie flowers to creek critters.

“This park is very representative of a lot of wood lots and farms,” she added.

The land that now makes up Sparks Park was developed from a farm to a park in the early 1990s, and it became the home of the PEBC in 1994.

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.

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