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Alumni garden design on school's east side preserves iconic LHS steel canopy

Lead Summary
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By
Mavis Fodness

The alumni garden proposed by the Luverne Education Legacy Fund received a boost recently when the KAHR Foundation agreed to fund the project on the east side of the Luverne Middle-High School.
School Board members reviewed plans and the initial $1.4 million budget at their Dec. 23 meeting.
“There should be a lot of amenities, so it is a pretty neat project,” said Superintendent Craig Oftedahl.
“We are hopeful that it (the garden) maybe done by the All-School Reunion (July 2022). I won’t guarantee that, but that is the push.”
Included in the design is stadium seating for 30-40 people complete with a podium and sound system.
Waterlines will support vegetation along the garden pathways, and heated sidewalks under the existing canopy will aid in snow removal.
Retired landscape designer Chuck Klinefelter of Brooklyn Center is overseeing the project with Warren Herreid II of the KAHR Foundation, district leaders and LELF members.
They’re working with Steve “Junior” Selseth of Oh’Landscapes LLC, Mayer, Minnesota, who specializes in boulder retaining walls.
Work began in earnest this fall when a budget was set. Klinefelter cautioned that the preliminary architectural drawings will change.
“We are now refining them within the budget,” he said Monday.
Klinefelter, who retired from full-time landscape design after 47 years, agreed to work on the alumni garden project due to its uniqueness.
“When I worked in the landscaping business, I liked to do projects that are challenging and out of the ordinary,” he said.
Next month, Klinefelter said Oh’Landscapes will move Sioux quartzite boulders to a staging area west of the school campus as design plans are finalized.
The existing steel canopy will be incorporated into the garden design, which is expected to be finished this spring.
“We are looking to mid to late April for the official start,” Klinefelter said.

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