Excitement is building in Broken Arrow as construction begins on The Gardens at Central Park following a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by the City of Broken Arrow and Keep Broken Arrow Beautiful (KBAB) on Oct. 31.

The event marked a significant milestone, with officials and community members coming together to celebrate the garden that has been 13 years in the making.

City Manager Michael Spurgeon thanked Broken Arrow citizens for prioritizing quality-of-life projects.

"Our citizens understand that to have a great city, you have to have a number of different amenities," Spurgeon said. "You have to have great public infrastructure; you have to have great recreational improvements, but you also have to have excellent passive recreational improvements."

Broken Arrow voters overwhelmingly approved the 2018 General Obligation Bond Package, which included $500,000 toward creating a rose garden at Central Park.

Initially, the idea was to create a large rose garden to keep with the city's rose history. However, after disease killed Tulsa's rose garden, a decision was made to add many different types of plants and flowers in addition to the roses.

The garden will be located in an underutilized area of Central Park, 1500 S. Main St., that was previously used for softball fields. The softball fields have been moved to Arrowhead Park.

"The contractor for the project is Motown Outdoors, and the amount of the contract the City Council awarded is about $468,000, but the total investment that will be made is around $531,000," Spurgeon said. "KBAB has been a major contributor to this, and I want to thank them for the dollars and sweat equity they have put into this project."

The City Manager also credited Sharon Atcheson and Beverly Forester of KBAB individually for their tenacity and perseverance in seeing this project through from conception to construction.

In her celebratory remarks, Forester reflected on the importance of roses in Broken Arrow dating back to the 1920s and the history of the garden project.

"It's been a lot of hard work, and we're so grateful to our city. I want to say a special thank you to Michael Spurgeon," Forester said. "When we first told him about our dream, he said, 'I can see your dream in my heart; you just need to teach me how to make it happen.' And we worked hard to make it happen."

A turning point in the creation of the garden came when Jim and Peggy Nelson donated $10,000 donation toward creating a master plan for the garden, according to Forester.   

"All of us working together had this passion to bring our city back to its beautiful history," Forrester said. "Thirteen years later, it is happening, and it's been an incredible journey."

Sharon Atcheson said many hands and feet have made this garden come to life.

 "I had someone say to me, you know everything you do in Broken Arrow is done so well, and it's done with the concept of unity, that everything fits together," Atcheson said. "So, I think this garden will be another place where it will fit with what is already here. I once referred to [The Gardens at Central Park] as the crown jewel of the Rose District, and I think it can be so."

Atcheson concluded her remarks by saying she looks forward to walking through the garden, smelling the roses, and watching the bees and butterflies.

Construction on The Gardens at Central Park is expected to finish in February 2025, with plantings to begin in early May.