Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez announced last month that the City of Bethlehem began implementing efforts to restore and improve the Rose Garden, a Lehigh County landmark, in 2017. In 2017, the Bethlehem Economic Development Corporation, in partnership with Bethlehem Backyards for Wildlife and the Mount Airy Neighborhood Association, were awarded a grant by the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation to re-imagine the Rose Garden. Brown Design Corporation, land architects and planners, were contracted to develop a plan for the park with input from the community.

Since then, the city has been working on a master plan for improvements to the Rose Garden consisting of, but not inclusive of, adding/improving the trails (phase 1), adding a picnic area (phase 1), improving/upgrading the square area (mostly phase 1 with some in phase 2), adding an activity lawn area (phase 2), improving the planting/adding to the rose garden itself (phase 2), and improvements to the Memorial Grove (phase 1).

The total construction cost is estimated at $400,000 and they have secured $200,000 for phase 1 to date, which has been designed. They anticipate a notice to proceed for construction in late August/early September. In the meantime, they are also doing some improvements in-house to supplement/support the described improvements above such as running water lines, etc.

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