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Shepard Center may get new management

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JAN 29, 2020


The Shepard Garden and Arts Center is used by nearly 30 clubs. (Photo: Courtesy SGAAC)

Friends of East Sacramento may soon oversee McKinley Park landmark

Shepard Garden and Arts Center, Sacramento’s longtime clubhouse, may soon be getting a change of management.

At 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, the center’s current board will consider shifting management of the 2,000-square-foot center to Friends of East Sacramento. Lisa Schmidt of Friends of East Sacramento will answer questions about the potential change.

The meeting will be held the Shepard Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd., in McKinley Park. Representatives of clubs that use the center are urged to attend.

If approved, the changeover would become fully effective July 1. But it’s expected that the Friends of East Sacramento will start handling event scheduling as soon as March 1.Under a lease arrangement with the City of Sacramento, Friends of East Sacramento already manages Clunie Community Center and the McKinley Park Memorial Rose Garden. Like the rose garden, the Shepard and Clunie centers are located in McKinley Park at H Street and Alhambra Boulevard.

For several years, Friends of East Sacramento has leased the Clunie Center from the city. In turn, the Friends have been in charge of upkeep and scheduling events at the popular venue.

In recent years, the non-profit Friends of the Shepard Garden and Arts Center has managed the facility, which is used regularly by nearly 30 local clubs and organizations. It’s also a popular venue for meetings and special occasions.

“This board took over management of the facility four years ago from the City of Sacramento,” the Shepard Center committee explained in a notice to the clubs that use the facility. “It is responsible for all the day-to-day activities, scheduling, hiring employees, billing, renting the facility to outside users, interior contents and structures, as well as the Japanese garden area and the perimeter gardens.”

With so much use, maintenance and staffing issues have been problematic.

“The board has received complaints from clubs including: Monitors not available to open facility as scheduled; room set-up not completed as specified by the club; lack of communication, emails and phone calls unanswered; billing and overtime charge errors; and many calendar scheduling mistakes,” according to a notice distributed by the Shepard Center leaders.

“The board explored many options to solve these problems,” the notice continued. “We have determined that the best solution is to change management of the SGAC.”

The advantages come in central management for McKinley Park’s major venues.

Said the center’s board, “There will be centralized scheduling and billing; direct management of staff including a facility manager, monitors and maintenance crew; the building will be fully operational and clean; there will be timely communications via email, text (and) phone and a weekly calendar of events emailed. … There is also an opportunity for increased outside rentals.”

Details: www.sgaac.org .

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Sacramento Shepard Garden & Arts Center garden clubs Friends of East Sacramento McKinley Park

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Garden Checklist for week of May 19

Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

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