On the morning March 14, 48 students from the University of Iowa will be sprucing up the downtown park.  The spring clean up is a joint effort between Blue Ridge city government, Habitat for Humanity Blue Ridge and the group of University of Iowa students.  Tasks the students will complete are staining the stage, cleaning and painting playground equipment, painting both sets of public restrooms, staining the octagonal pavilion, painting the Main Street wooden deck, rock work and planting.  Totaled together, the group represents 240 man hours which is six weeks of full time work for a person.

Alyssa Peiffer, a student at the University of Iowa, set up the community service project through Chris Hall who manages Habitat for Humanity’s Restore store in Blue Ridge.  Hall said that for several years this group of students has been spending their spring breaks working on community service projects throughout the United States.  They are self-sponsored and not affiliated with a particular university organization.  In fact, each student has paid $500 for the four-states, four- projects tour. Hall hopes that this year will be the beginning of an ongoing relationship between Blue Ridge and the University of Iowa students so that in future years they will choose Blue Ridge again for their community service Spring Break tour.

Providing support to the group of students is a community-wide effort.  The students will sleep at First Baptist Epworth.  Papa’s Pizza and Dairy Queen will provide lunch for the group on Monday.  Some Fannin County High School Student Advisory Council members will join in cleaning with the group of students.  Council Members Angie Arp and Harold Herndon, along with Blue Ridge Parks and Maintenance employees, will supervise painting and planting.  City Hall employees will be there to serve the students snacks and lunch.  Blue Ridge’s Habitat for Humanity will also provide some of the painting supplies.

Preparation for spring cleaning has already started.  Blue Ridge’s Parks and Maintenance employees dismantled and dug up the equipment.  They have also taken down the fence.  Over the weekend they will be delivering supplies and setting up work stations for the students.

However, the playground will not be open for use the next day.  When a skeleton playground will be open for use and fencing up around the playground is uncertain says Tim Towe, Parks Supervisor for Blue Ridge.   Something will be available a few weeks out, but what, Towe cannot say.

Uncertainty about the playground’s reopening  is due to the scheduled renovation of the entire downtown Blue Ridge City Park area.

First, the City Council has not yet voted on the renovation’s design.  The desire is to place the playground around the stage, picnic shelter and restroom area rather than at its current location.  The area around the stage is uphill and will help the water drain off the playground.  Also, Mayor Whitener believes that the current playground’s proximity to Depot Street is dangerous to small children; it wouldn’t take but about three steps of toddling and a quick three-year old run to dart out onto Depot Street, possibly in front of a car.  The stage area is the portion of the city park farthest from traffic.

Second, the Kiwanis Club will be donating some new playground equipment to Blue Ridge this summer.  Current equipment, like the swings, are already slated to go, but, it is still up in the air as to what equipment will be coming.

Third, City Council members want to remove the pebbles from the playground and use sod as the top surface.  For this to happen, the playground area needs to be filled in with dirt and regraded.

Fourth, the City Council wants to replace the current fencing type with new fending and have fewer gates with so that small escapees won’t have so many options for getting away from their parents.

Fifth, Mayor Whitener would like to see several different play areas with different age-appropriate equipment so that the toddlers will not be competing for slide space with 10 year-olds.

For all of the renovation matters to settle will take some time.  But, there will be some assemblage of a playground available again towards April.