Santa’s helpers come to Shipley Nature Center

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

If ever there was a nature center deserving of help this Christmas,

it’s our own Shipley Nature Center in Central Park.

If you’ve followed the story of the nature center in our columns,

you know that the city closed the center in October 2002 and turned

management over to Friends of Shipley Nature Center.

You know that the group, in cooperation with the Orange County

Conservation Corps and an army of volunteers, has made great progress

in restoring the various habitats at the center. With the help of

several Scout groups, the observation blind has been completely

renovated, a coastal sage scrub habitat has replaced the forest of

toxic castor bean and giant reed, and more than 600 trees and 500

shrubs have been planted throughout the center.

For the Interpretive Building, the Friends put together a master

plan with the help of LSA Associates’ Steve Conkling, who has

volunteered his expertise as a museum consultant. Under the direction

of Friends’ Education Director and City Planning Commissioner Tom

Livengood, the friends stripped the interior and set about upgrading

the exhibits.

The task of renovating the building, however, was well beyond the

group’s meager budget. That’s when City Planning Commissioner Steve

Ray stepped in. He must have placed a call to the North Pole, because

a host of Santa’s helpers descended upon Shipley Nature Center.

Ray arranged a meeting between representatives of the Los

Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council and the Friends’

Education and Restoration Committee representatives. The Friends

hauled out their Christmas wish list.

The union workers of the Building Trades Council said that they

could make the wishes a reality. Different trade unions have adopted

different Shipley projects and are donating their skilled labor, as

well as some materials needed for the various jobs. The result is

nothing short of a miracle.

The first “elf” to arrive was Peter Martyniuk, a coordinator of

apprentices with the International Union of Painters and Allied

Trades. Martyniuk consulted with Grant Mitchell, the business

representative for District Council 36, and Sergio Hernandez, the

director of the apprenticeship, to arrange to donate their talents to

the Shipley project.

Martyniuk showed up last week with instructor Daniel Gutierrez,

and apprentices Mike Aguiler and Mervin Knighton. The apprentices

cleaned two decades of dust from the metal girders and carefully hung

plastic over the brick walls and animal displays.

In two days, these men transformed a dingy tan and brown metal

ceiling to a fresh sky blue. The Friends will hang mounted birds in

flight and artificial clouds made of fiberfill or Styrofoam from the

new blue ceiling. Along the interior walls, they’ll mount small trees

salvaged from the restoration process. The effect will simulate the

outdoors. Won’t that be totally awesome?

To spray the paint, Martyniuk suited up from head to toe in a

white space-age protective suit. Only his eyes showed from behind his

respirator. He coated the few square inches of exposed skin around

his eyes with Vaseline to make it easier to wipe off the inevitable

paint spray.

When Martyniuk emerged from behind the plastic sheeting at the end

of the second day, his face was painted the same sky blue as the

ceiling. He was one funny-looking elf.

The apprentices train for seven years before they advance to

journeyman painters. It’s a difficult trade to learn. Martyniuk

pointed out that the apprentices will be working with several

chemicals and solvents, nasty things that can cause cancer, liver

disease and skin problems.

“A careless painter is a sick or dead painter,” he said.

The next elf on the scene was Ken McLean, a flooring installation

instructor with the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee of the

Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36. McLean brought his

crew of apprentices to install blue carpet with flecks of tan and

green over the old, blotchy red concrete floor.

The union laborers weren’t the only ones to help this project

along. Ken Hurd, owner of Commercial Interior Resources, donated all

of the carpet squares and adhesive needed for the main display area

of the interpretive building.

While apprentices Ruben Montelongo, John Ruiz, Robert Herrera and

Isidro Lopez cut and laid the carpet squares, McLean regaled the

Friends with tales of apprentices cutting off their fingers and

slashing other body parts with the tools of their trade --

double-edged knives known as Bloody Marys.

McLean said it’s all in a day’s work. The apprentices just dress

their injuries with duct tape and keep on laying carpet. Fortunately,

the beautiful blue carpet was successfully installed without a drop

of blood. The new main exhibit room is not only gorgeous, but

quieter, cleaner and brighter. The blues in the ceiling and carpet

bring out the colors in the lovely floor-to-ceiling mural of

Blackbird Pond.

Martyniuk and McLean are only the first in a long line of trade

union representatives who have helped at Shipley Nature Center. Other

Santa’s helpers expected to visit in the near future are from the

unions of concrete workers, bricklayers, landscapers, irrigation

specialists, plumbers, tile layers, ornamental ironworkers and

others.

It’s a wonderful Christmas for Shipley Nature Center. The Friends

hope to be able to show off their many presents at a grand opening in

April.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.