Staff photo /Brandon Cantwell Dean Evans of Hubbard Township looks at the sensory garden’s waterfall at the Hubbard Public Library’s Sensory Garden Celebration Wednesday.

HUBBARD — Library patrons had the chance to indulge their senses and experience the culmination of efforts for an upgrade to a decade-old area designed to help children and adults relax.

The Hubbard Public Library hosted an open house Wednesday, recognizing the fruits of an $86,000 remodeling project for a sensory garden that opened near the library’s children’s room in 2015.

Library Director Lorena Stearns said the garden’s makings have always been there, though, recalling when she was hired as the library’s director in 2013.

“The footprint of the garden was here; it was very much overgrown and it was like that for a couple of years, a year and a half or so,” Stearns said. “Our previous maintenance man, Chip Silvidi was here, and between him and Mary Anne Russo, they started coming up with ideas to spruce it up, and over that next year and a half, two years, is when the water feature went in.”

Stearns said Silvidi maintained the garden and it did nicely for a while, and patrons enjoyed it. After 10 years and the inevitable erosion and wear and tear, however, Stearns said library officials realized they needed an upgrade — for both safety and aesthetic value, adding that it was going to be a major project.

Stearns said with the $86,000 price tag for improvements, Hubbard Friends of the Library and other community members began putting together a series of events — from fundraisers to Boy Scout pancake breakfasts. Those, along with some “generous donations”, officials knew they could start moving forward, Stearns said, getting BSHM Architects involved to begin drawing plans and the project’s scope.

Russo said the garden was designed with the intention of incorporating things that appealed to different aspects of human senses — a giant set of chimes and the water fountain for hearing and some of the plants, such as lavender and sedum, for smell.

“As far as seeing, everything you see brings beauty to the eyes,” Russo said. “That was the idea for the different elements we wanted to incorporate.”

Russo said she met with BSHM Architects’ Bob Toot and was able to give a lot of input regarding what they wanted to incorporate, crediting him for being able to make their vision work with such a limited space.

Russo said with sensory gardens popping up in more and more communities she considered their own garden to be the first one in the area to have the idea.

“This is its second life, so to speak; it was done 10 years ago with the same kind of elements, the same ideas in mind,” she said. “It needed a refresher, which is why we’re celebrating tonight.”

Hubbard Mayor Ben Kyle was one of many community members checking the garden out, saying it was a “fantastic update” to a wonderful piece of accessibility for the community.

“They’ve done a fantastic job, making it so easy for people to come reflect, read a book — interact with the staff here at the library,” Kyle said. “Be able to interact with the different aspects of so many plants and vegetation that they had planted here and really to enjoy being outside and in tune with your senses.”

Kyle said he loved the fact that the garden connected both parts of the library — the kids’ and community room.

“No matter if it’s young children being in the library or the community room being used for a meeting, everyone is able to witness the beauty of what they created,” he said.