4-H club improves city park, playground

This article submitted by Linda Stelling on 7/30/96.

With the thought of adding something new each year to the playground at the Veteran's Memorial Park on Lake Koronis, the Koronis Eager Beavers 4-H Club designed a flower bed and added a piece of handicap accessible equipment.

To meet state codes, the city was required to add a piece of handicap accessible playground equipment. When the 4-H club approached the city about adding something to the playground for their Community Pride project, Ron Mergen, public works director, suggested the superscoop.

Work on the superscoop and handicap accessible ramp took the 4-H club members two days. On the first day, the club members dug the post holes and positioned the supports for the ramp. "It took us a couple of times repositioning the boards before things would work out right for the ramp," Tim Roberg said. The club members weren't able to position the superscoop until the second day because they didn't have the right tools along the first night.

Jennifer Wendlandt said John Wimmer deserved a lot of credit for the flower bed as he helped them design the shape and pick out the flowers which would best survive at the park.

Prior to planting the flower bed beside the bathhouse, the grass was sprayed to kill the sod. "We had to wait two weeks before we could do anything," Wendlandt said. "The dead area of grass created quite a conversation piece at the park as people headed to the lake swimming." Someone outlined the area with white spray paint and then Carin Frenchick sprayed the grass with a weed killer.

Wendlandt said among the plants they planted were: early sunrise, tiger lily, annuals and two evergreens.The flower bed took the club one day to dig up the sod and remove any large pieces, position the lawn edging and plants. Once planted, the ground was covered with wood chips and wood shavings.

Besides the flower bed and superscoop, the club also planted four trees south of the parking lot. About 25 club members worked on the projects. The Paynesville Jaycees helped finance the project.

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