Some burning questions for summer's end.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

As summer ends, they're starting to fall from the trivia trees, leaves of multi-colored minutia:

Question: Why do I sometimes hear KEZI television news on my radio?

Answer: Monday through Friday, KEZI 9 News at 5 is simulcast on KKNX 840 AM.

Question: I couldn't believe all the flags flying in Florence on Sept. 11. Who puts them up and how many?

Answer: The Florence Kiwanis Club places about 400 American flags on rain-free days of national remembrance.

Question: Where does Civic Stadium stand in the chronology of active minor-league baseball parks?

Answer: When next season opens, it'll be the ninth-oldest park among the 160 minor league teams affiliated with Major League Baseball. The Vermont Lake Monsters in Winooski, Vt., have the oldest, Centennial Field, built in 1922. Civic Stadium opened in 1938.

Question: At the Pink Martini concert at the Cuthbert, I noticed the new landscaping, complete with engraved tiles in the ground. Who is responsible for them and how do I get my late dog's name on one of them?

Answer: You're referring to the Hays Memorial Garden, which showcases trees donated in honor of loved ones. It was dedicated in 1999 in honor of Doris Hays Fenton, mother of former Eugene Mayor - and major garden donor - Ruth Bascom. Leaf tiles are $145, memorial trees $750 and benches, $1,200 to $1,700. To inquire about one, call 682-4907.

Question: At Kirk Pond, just north of Fern Ridge Lake, the highway cleanup is done in memory of a Jarrett Estess. Who was he?

Answer: Estess was an 18-year-old Elmira High student who drowned in the pond in 1995. Investigators speculate that he stopped his pickup on the side of the road to fiddle with a car stereo that hadn't been working properly. They believe that while he was working under the dashboard, the truck rolled down the slope and into the pond.

Question: What's happening to West University Neighborhood Park now? Construction is going on at that site at Hilyard Street and East 14th Avenue. Are we losing a park?

Answer: No. With the blessing of the West Eugene Neighborhood Association, the city made a land swap with the property owner, who's putting in an apartment complex. The park, because of illicit activity, has been closed for more than a decade, says Johnny Medlin, Eugene's Parks and Open Space director. Once construction of the apartments is completed, the park will be rebuilt - slightly east of where it was - on the corner of Hilyard and East 14th. That, says Medlin, will give it higher visibility and, Medlin hopes, cut down on the activities that led to its closure.

Question: Whatever happened to the USC student who made the half-court shot at halftime of the USC-Oregon basketball game last spring, ripped off his shirt to show a Duck jersey and was subsequently not given the $10,000 scholarship he thought he had won? Did he transfer to University of Texas as he said he might?

Answer: No, former Eugene resident Nate Erickson, who was denied the prize because he took two attempts to make the half-court shot, has returned to USC. Interestingly, Erickson spent a six-week internship with KEZI in Eugene this summer.

Note: In my Sept. 7 column on Eugene philanthropists, I said it was Nils and Jewel Hult's $3 million gift that "got the Hult Center project airborne and, ultimately, finished." In fact, the Hult's donation came at the end of the project and most was designated not for the building but as an endowment to support arts organizations and Hult programming, said Benson Snyder, then-executive director of the Eugene Arts Foundation. While the Hult gift was a key last-minute donation, what got the project airborne was the Lane County Auditorium Association and hundreds of volunteers who worked for years to get an $18.5 million city bond issue passed in 1978 to help finance the $25 million project.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or at [e-mail].