“It can still be completed, but there’s a push right now,” he said.

“It’s really lucky that we’ve got this place right in the middle of town. Some people refer to it as the ‘Central Park’ of Fairbanks,” Hughes said. “There’s people walking their dogs, spending time with their families, reading, taking photographs. This is really the one place that I think connects all of Fairbanks.”

Four sandhill cranes fly over Creamer's Field, during the Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival on Saturday. Alistair Gardiner/News-Miner