Post by Okwes on Jan 28, 2006 11:50:12 GMT -5
Poway preparing to develop Kumeyaay center
By: ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer
www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/26/news/inland/21_00_111_25_06.txt
POWAY ---- The city is moving forward with plans to develop part of the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center, which offers the public a chance to learn about the culture of some of Poway's earliest residents.
The City Council approved a permit this week for a $381,649 project that will add two buildings, a small road and parking lot, utilities and other improvements to the center, at the southern end of Silver Lake Drive. The work is expected to get under way by summer.
To develop the center, the city teamed up several years ago with the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians ---- a 280-member Kumeyaay tribe based on a 1,300-acre reservation about 15 miles northeast of Escondido.
The buildings proposed for the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center will be similar to portable classrooms found at many schools. They will serve as a museum and office until the city has the money to build a permanent interpretative center on the property.
Members of a volunteer group known as Friends of the Kumeyaay said they welcomed the project because it will give the center a base of operations as well as indoor learning and storage space. Friends member and docent Sandee Horan said the volunteers ---- who include members of the San Pasqual tribe ---- also believe the project will enable them to expand the number of educational opportunities offered at the center.
An estimated 3,000 visitors, including local third-graders whose history lessons include a visit to the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center, get to experience those opportunities every year.
"We're really excited because we can do more things with the kids and put out artifacts and have some more information for everybody," Horan said. "And once we have the center, we want to get arts and crafts up there" such as gourd art, basket weaving and pottery-making.
City officials have sought to develop the Kumeyaay site for more than 10 years. Spread across a rocky knoll overlooking Poway Road, the property is part of a 30-acre village that Kumeyaay Indians established about 300 years ago in the valley now known as Poway.
Commercial and residential developments now cover most of the former village. Only a small section, tucked between Silver Lake Drive and Carriage Road, is undeveloped.
The site is full of metates ---- large rocks with grinding stones ---- and other American Indian artifacts. Unprotected for years, though, the property became a popular gathering spot for vagrants, vandals and young people looking to party.
That changed after Poway resident Eamon Kavanagh began lobbying the city to recognize the site's historical significance and preserve it in the mid-1990s. The city eventually bought some of the land, fenced it in and oversaw cleanup parties that cleared non-native vegetation and removed broken glass and other debris from the site.
The interpretative center got its name in 2000, when Poway signed a development agreement with the San Pasqual tribe The city began setting money aside for the project in 2002.
The development plan calls for the work to be done in two phases. Construction of the access road, which will cut through the property and curve around the knoll's base to connect Silver Lake Drive and Carriage Road, the installation of water and sewer lines, and the addition of disabled-accessible trails and walkways are scheduled to happen first.
The road will include roughly nine parking spaces designed to open up a cul-de-sac at the end of Silver Lake Drive that the center's visitors use for parking now. The modular buildings and a native garden will be added in a later phase.
All the work will occur in the center's northeast corner, where the land is already disturbed. That section is well away from the part that contains the artifacts.
San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians Chairman Allen Lawson referred a request for comment on the project Wednesday to a member of his tribe's executive staff who is a Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center docent. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Councilman Bob Emery and his wife, Suzanne, are longtime center supporters and volunteers. Emery said everyone connected with the Kumeyaay site is happy about the upcoming project.
"There's been a hope that we could develop it as an interpretative center for a long time," he said. "There's been lots of volunteer time spent on it, and we've had a program going on there. But this the first step toward putting a building on the site and having a place for cars to park."
The city is also applying for a $300,000 grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. City officials have said the development project could be expanded if Poway receives that money.
Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.
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By: ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer
www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/26/news/inland/21_00_111_25_06.txt
POWAY ---- The city is moving forward with plans to develop part of the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center, which offers the public a chance to learn about the culture of some of Poway's earliest residents.
The City Council approved a permit this week for a $381,649 project that will add two buildings, a small road and parking lot, utilities and other improvements to the center, at the southern end of Silver Lake Drive. The work is expected to get under way by summer.
To develop the center, the city teamed up several years ago with the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians ---- a 280-member Kumeyaay tribe based on a 1,300-acre reservation about 15 miles northeast of Escondido.
The buildings proposed for the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center will be similar to portable classrooms found at many schools. They will serve as a museum and office until the city has the money to build a permanent interpretative center on the property.
Members of a volunteer group known as Friends of the Kumeyaay said they welcomed the project because it will give the center a base of operations as well as indoor learning and storage space. Friends member and docent Sandee Horan said the volunteers ---- who include members of the San Pasqual tribe ---- also believe the project will enable them to expand the number of educational opportunities offered at the center.
An estimated 3,000 visitors, including local third-graders whose history lessons include a visit to the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center, get to experience those opportunities every year.
"We're really excited because we can do more things with the kids and put out artifacts and have some more information for everybody," Horan said. "And once we have the center, we want to get arts and crafts up there" such as gourd art, basket weaving and pottery-making.
City officials have sought to develop the Kumeyaay site for more than 10 years. Spread across a rocky knoll overlooking Poway Road, the property is part of a 30-acre village that Kumeyaay Indians established about 300 years ago in the valley now known as Poway.
Commercial and residential developments now cover most of the former village. Only a small section, tucked between Silver Lake Drive and Carriage Road, is undeveloped.
The site is full of metates ---- large rocks with grinding stones ---- and other American Indian artifacts. Unprotected for years, though, the property became a popular gathering spot for vagrants, vandals and young people looking to party.
That changed after Poway resident Eamon Kavanagh began lobbying the city to recognize the site's historical significance and preserve it in the mid-1990s. The city eventually bought some of the land, fenced it in and oversaw cleanup parties that cleared non-native vegetation and removed broken glass and other debris from the site.
The interpretative center got its name in 2000, when Poway signed a development agreement with the San Pasqual tribe The city began setting money aside for the project in 2002.
The development plan calls for the work to be done in two phases. Construction of the access road, which will cut through the property and curve around the knoll's base to connect Silver Lake Drive and Carriage Road, the installation of water and sewer lines, and the addition of disabled-accessible trails and walkways are scheduled to happen first.
The road will include roughly nine parking spaces designed to open up a cul-de-sac at the end of Silver Lake Drive that the center's visitors use for parking now. The modular buildings and a native garden will be added in a later phase.
All the work will occur in the center's northeast corner, where the land is already disturbed. That section is well away from the part that contains the artifacts.
San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians Chairman Allen Lawson referred a request for comment on the project Wednesday to a member of his tribe's executive staff who is a Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretative Center docent. She could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Councilman Bob Emery and his wife, Suzanne, are longtime center supporters and volunteers. Emery said everyone connected with the Kumeyaay site is happy about the upcoming project.
"There's been a hope that we could develop it as an interpretative center for a long time," he said. "There's been lots of volunteer time spent on it, and we've had a program going on there. But this the first step toward putting a building on the site and having a place for cars to park."
The city is also applying for a $300,000 grant from the California Cultural and Historical Endowment. City officials have said the development project could be expanded if Poway receives that money.
Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.
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