The Rivanna Kiosk at Darden Towe Park

The kiosk began in a brainstorming session of members of the Rivanna River Basin Roundtable and others who care about the river, about ways to let people know about both the issues and the exciting things that are going on in the Rivanna watershed. The problem, we thought, is not so much that there's nothing happening, but that not enough people know about it.

	An early conceptual design
	Plans for the kiosk

Sure, we can post about it on a website, and issue a public service announcement here or there. But if people don't know to visit the website and don't happen to catch the announcements, how do they find out? Maybe we need somewhere eye-catching to post it, we thought. Somewhere that gets a lot of traffic…but not too far from the river. Darden Towe Memorial Park came immediately to mind. What if we built a display kiosk there? The Darden Towe Memorial Park Committee was agreeable to the idea, and staff at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission began to search for funding.

We are very grateful to the following who shared our excitement and made this kiosk possible:

• The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund
• The Charlottesville Ten-Miler
• The Charlottesville-Albemarle Community Foundation
• The Perry Foundation
• JR&H Architects

We also want to express our gratitude to Bill Connell, who went the extra mile while building the kiosk for us, to Pete Powers of Terragraphics, who created the 3-D map, and to all those who labored to stain the kiosk.

We expect to change the exhibits at the kiosk about twice a year (except for the map). Please call or e-mail Rochelle Garwood at the TJPDC (979-7310, rgarwood@tjpdc.org) if you have questions, comments, or would like to have an exhibit there in the future.

Directions

To get to the park, take Route 20 north from Route 250 at Pantops. The park entrance will be on the left. Turn right at the "T" and drive to the end of the parking lot. The kiosk is just off the paved path leading to the picnic shelter.