I spent a recent morning with Fairview’s public works director, Allan Berry, on his famous dashboard tour. Allan is a delight. He is funny and generous with his time and his knowledge. Which is vast. This guy knows so much about our city, from the condition of our roads to the depths of our lakes to the location of every park, pocket park, trail, playground, and garden.
And he’s got our number – 30 acres of green space per 1,000 residents.
“It’s a Cadillac number,” Allan likes to say. “A Cadillac number.”
That number is what makes Fairview special – all our green space. Whether it’s a park or wetlands or a patch of woods, these construction-free spaces bring a lot of beauty and peace to our backyards. Allan and his team care for our parks, as well as tend to our roads, our drinking water, our sewer system, and our recycling program.
Spend a few hours with Allan and you learn some interesting bits about Fairview:
- We have three reservoirs which store as much as six million gallons in above-ground tanks
- West Salish Pond is 60 feet deep and is home to cold water fish like trout
- East Salish Pond is 20 feet deep and home to warm water fish like bass and crappie
- Fairview Lake used to be a wetland and is only about five feet deep
- Fairview Creek can be found on maps dating back to 1840
- Members of the Multnomah tribe of Chinookan Indians lived in Fairview, and are remembered on markers dotted around town, including at Handy Park
- There is no public boat launch at Blue Lake Park
- There is a community garden just for military veterans in Park Cleone
- Fairview Woods Wetland Park was cleared by 50 goats named for characters in the Bible
I’m grateful to Allan and his crew for keeping us safe, keeping us clean, giving us good water to drink, and making sure we can get around. The public works department also includes planning – so they’re building our future, too. Keep that Cadillac number, team!
