SCHENECTADY — Twelve years ago, the Central Park Rose Garden volunteers didn’t dare dream of an elaborate, rose-covered entrance — they just hoped they could bring the existing rose bushes back from the dead.

But now, they’ve not only restored the city’s award-winning garden, but they’ve also raised $160,000 to make it even better. Beginning today, Prize Construction workers will turn the slippery, muddy hill in front of the garden into a stone staircase with small rose bushes cascading down the center. A brick gatehouse will welcome visitors at the top of the hill from Central Parkway below.

“We never dreamed this day would come,” said Rose Garden Restoration Committee President Matt Cuevas before revealing the plans Wednesday. “Many, many years ago, when this organization first started, we were here just to save this garden.”

Now they’ve added an irrigation system and ripped out the old deteriorating fountains, which are scheduled to be replaced in 2010.

The staircase and gatehouse not only will create an entranceway to the garden but also allow the volunteers to lock up their irrigation controls and hide their gardening tools.

Volunteers expect the staircase will prove popular with the groups that come to the garden each summer to get their photos taken. The site is regularly visited by wedding parties.

But Cuevas said the garden’s biggest strength is the tranquility it can offer to everyday visitors.

“With the war, the stock market, inner-city problems here and in Albany, as a city resident, you sometimes feel bombarded,” he said. “It’s a place where you can come. It’s peaceful. ... It’s some place to escape, to relive a dream of what it means to live in a city.”

Mayor Brian U. Stratton was on hand to thank the volunteers who took the garden off the city’s hands in 1995.

“It’s an absolute display of the dedication and enthusiasm and the absolute commitment that is uncompensated except for their love of seeing things flourish here,” he said, thanking them for their work.

The group received significant help from local state legislators, who provided a total of $20,500 in grants. Five local foundations provided much of the rest.

Stratton said their success was truly extraordinary.

“Your ability, Matt, to raise those kinds of funds in these financial times ...you’ve succeeded so much that maybe we should ask you how we can do it,” he said.

Work begins today and will end in December, although some landscaping work will be done in early spring.