Title: City Park Planner
Organization: City of Detroit
Community: Detroit
Population: 50 in winter; 1,500 in summer
County Served: Marion County

Meet Justin Montrie (he/him):

Much of Justin’s large family lives in Chicagoland -near the Illinois border with Wisconsin, with life centered around a beautiful lake connected to the Fox River system, and there the family enjoys the access to nature, caring for plants and gardens, and playing games into the night as a big group. Justin enjoys reading and making art, rural traveling, gardening and music.

Community and Organization:

The City of Detroit is in the nationally forested heart of the Willamette Valley in Central Oregon’s Western Cascade Mountains. In 1891, the settlement previous called ‘Coe’ was formally designated ‘Detroit’ through the process of, among other endeavors, a United States post office stationing. The 19th century historic name change displays some of the timely humor and unique character of the residents, reflecting those originally from Michigan who were then living in the town. It is set on the north fork of the Santiam River at about 1700’ elevation, a stunning, rural location of many streams and rivers, which ultimately empty into the Willamette and then Columbia Rivers and out to the Pacific. The 2020 Santiam Fire complex burned 90% of the infrastructure of Detroit, and our community maintains its work on formidable reconstruction challenges. There are fewer full-time residents in Detroit as a consequence of the fire and so the seasonality of recreational advantage particularly accents daily affairs. The city government employs exemplary civil servants and public works employees and coordinates well with its city councilors during the concentrated time of post-disaster rebuilding.

Projects:

Justin is the City Park Panner for a 2.7 acre green space and he makes a creative process happen with community members as a working group designing and producing City Park development plans. Abetted through a design intensive workshop and work conducted by Oregon By Design, the coalition will create applications to formal grant funding sources. With grants secured the project will connect, construct, reopen, and manage a renewed public green space with a long term objective, mission and plan. Additionally, Justin helps with routine care, troubleshooting and maintenance on City of Detroit trees, shrubs, flowers, and public landscaping