CINCINNATI — What began as an effort to make continuous improvements to the Mill Creek more than four years ago is finally taking shape. As part of the City of Cincinnati’s Mill Creek Greenway Program, the non-profit Mill Creek Restoration Project has taken Laughing Brook from architectural renderings and moved it into motion.

The project, which has required a tremendous collaborative effort involving the City Park Board, the City Recreation Commission, dozen of local artists and the Contemporary Arts Center, is now underway thanks to local construction firm Reece-Campbell, Inc. Pete Chronis, Reece-Campbell president, is volunteering as the construction manager for the innovative public art, constructed wetland and environmental education project. Human Nature, a Cincinnati-based landscape architecture studio, created the design plans for Laughing Brook.

Reece-Campbell typically undertakes major commercial building projects such as the Lofts at 4120 in Oakley (currently under construction); the Rookwood Tower in Norwood; and One Gateway Place in downtown Cincinnati, adjacent to Elsinore Place and Reading Road, according to Chronis, a member of the Mill Creek Restoration Project Board of Trustees who has taken a personal interest in the project.

“When this project came along, we were thrilled to be a part of it,” Chronis said. “It’s the result of a brilliant public/private and multi-disciplinary team that is addressing ecological restoration, environmental education, sustainable design, public art and sensitive construction issues.”

The project is located along Mill Creek in Salway Park, directly across from the Spring Grove Cemetery and within Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Village neighborhood. The park is owned by the City Park Board and managed by the City Recreation Commission and is a heavily used recreational facility that serves over half of the City’s neighborhoods. Laughing Brook includes:

• A constructed wetland to cleanse stormwater runoff from the large paved parking lot and adjacent ball fields, before it is discharged to Mill Creek. The wetland is located over the original meander of Mill Creek, prior to the construction of Spring Grove Avenue and Salway Park.
  
• About one hundred and thirty bio-sculptures designed by internationally-acclaimed artist Jackie Brookner and fabricated by local artists Gordon Strain, Tony Luensman and twelve ArtWorks student apprentices. The moss-covered sculptures of human hands and Ohio native fish will work in conjunction with wetland plants to cleanse the stormwater runoff. Brookner will position the concrete sculptures in the wetland in mid-August, with assistance from the Contemporary Arts Center, Reece-Campbell and MCRP.
  
• A boardwalk and pathways for observing all components of the project and for connecting future trail users to the parking lot from the planned Queen City-South Mill Creek hike and bike trail, to loop around the perimeter of Salway Park. Local artist Chad Scholten and seven ArtWorks student apprentices have create one section of semi-porous eco-pavers for the project, with fish, animals and ecological symbols.
  
• Butterfly gardens with Ohio native plants surrounding the wetland that will provide wildlife habitat and serve as native species nurseries for the City’s Mill Creek Greenway Program. Two hundred students and teachers participating in MCRP’s Mill Creek School Program have helped to grow much of the vegetation that will be planted in and around Laughing Brook.
  

In addition to the wetland water filtration system and the installation of native plants, MCRP Executive Director Robin Corathers said Laughing Brook incorporates many other green or sustainable design features including:

• Porous and semi-porous paving and pavers to allow some of the rainfall to percolate through the hard surfaces and park soils, and a bio-swale with rocks and plants to slow down and filter water discharged from the wetland during heavy rainfalls.
  
• Renewable solar energy, including a solar-powered compactor trash can and a solar panel that will provide power to circulate water in the wetland and to regularly mist the mosses.
  
• Reused and recycled materials and products including visitor benches, parking bollards, edging around the butterfly gardens and the boardwalk. The educational kiosk will be mounted on reused power poles, to be donated by Duke Energy. The kiosk panels will be made from recycled plastic lumber created from about 4,000 plastic milk jugs.
  
• Natural, nontoxic materials including river rock, creek stone, concrete, gravel and sand.
  

Corathers said that Laughing Brook will serve a number of public purposes. It will become a permanent outdoor environmental education resource for students, a demonstration site for green design and eco-friendly stormwater management strategies, and a public amenity and focal point for thousands of park visitors.

Reece-Campbell Inc., is donating labor, materials and equipment to the initiative. Other businesses contributing to the project include the GE Foundation: $50,000 to create the sculptures; the Cognis Corporation: $20,000 for project construction; Duke Energy, Hilltop Basic Resources and Outdoor Environments: donations of construction supplies and materials; and Paul Hemmer Companies and Marvin’s Organic Gardens: donation of native trees, shrubs and plants.

Additional major funding for Laughing Brook has come from Mill Creek Restoration Project donors; ArtWorks; the City of Cincinnati, the Compton Foundation, Inc.; the Ohio Arts Council; the Ohio Environmental Education Fund; and the U.S. EPA Environmental Education and Stormwater grant programs. In addition, students and teachers from Hughes Center, Little Flower School, Norwood Middle School, Withrow University High and Winton Montessori have contributed fieldwork time for the project.

For businesses interested in supporting Laughing Brook, it’s not too late says Corathers. MCRP needs to raise another $25,000 by mid-September to cover costs for constructing the boardwalk over the wetland, for purchasing reused/recycled furnishings and for installing all of the native landscaping. Corathers said that all donors contributing $1,000 or more in cash or inkind services will be acknowledged on the permanent Laughing Brook kiosk.

Donations can be sent to the nonprofit MCRP at 1617 Elmore Court, Cincinnati, Ohio 45223. For more information about Laughing Brook and other Mill Creek programs, visit the group’s website at www.millcreekrestoration.org.