Progress on the Trail

Party at the Pond 2011

I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have like to. I could not stay for the event for very long. But here is a little peek at the beginning:

Meeting Before Spring

Greetings to all!

It really feels like spring today, and we have alot to plan and accomplish this spring for the Nichols Park Pond Project.

With that in mind, it is time to activate the committee and have a meeting so we can hit the ground running when it thaws.

Please note this date on your calendars: Wednesday, February 23 at 7 PM at the Spencer Town Hall

An agenda will be forthcoming. Please plan to attend full of energy and ideas!

~Joan

Spencer's 100th year for the Picnic.

The car show...




Celebrating 100 years of the Spencer Picnic at Nichols Park with fireworks...





Carnival ride at night:

Finally getting some grass seed down around the trail.


The stone wall from a distance:

A temporary fix for a bridge over a little "creek" that runs into the pond:

A close-up of the "rock wall" at the back of the pond - things are certainly moving forward and ever so much closer to the final product...
One of our local youth fishing at the pond - almost on a daily basis. It is kids like him that will help keep this park alive in the future!

Parkview Pizzeria was VERY generous in keeping the crew fed and energized. They donated pizza and subs for both weekends (even though we tried to pay...) they did a great job on the food and all of the crew enjoyed!!

Thanks, Jeb!!!!

Many thanks to ALL that participate.

Participating with labor, monetary donations or even a pizza pie or a peach pie are all appreciated when trying to keep this very important project alive!!!

A very BIG thank you to everyone who has participated and donated! To follow is a special note of thanks from the chairpersons of the project, Dale and Joan Weston:

All,

Valarie Kranz has generously created and offered to manage a blog of the Nichols Park Pond Project. She has posted some great pictures of the trail construction that occurred the past two weekends. If you haven't been to see the trail yet, you are way behind many members of the community. One siting on the trail was of 15 people, another later in the day was of 16, including those fishing. And, that was on Monday, the day after we completed laying the stone dust on the trail! If we ever doubted that the community was ready for this project, that doubt has been completely dispelled.

http://nicholsppp.blogspot.com/

Many thanks go out to the following volunteers who managed to do the impossible--create a full perimeter trail in 4 days! To paraphrase Kevin Hodges, if people had any idea how much fun we were having, they would have all been there!

Albert Smith, our two-timer who participated in the '64 project and is still here helping again

Eric Cooke Craig Kranz
Doug Thornton
Chris Miller
Lee Haefele
Paul Winch
George Oakes
Buddy Oakes
Doug Henry
Paul Zoltowski
Kevin Hodges
Chris Garland
Dan Garrison
Dick Smith
Roy Schreiner and 5 boys, 1 girl from the Tioga County's Alternative to Incarceration Program
Dale Weston
Brent Weston
Joan Weston
Valarie Kranz
Barbara Schwender
Tim Schwender
Leanna Bond and Bobby from the Key Club
Hazel Saikkonen

Equipment support was donated by
Arvo Rautine
Kevin Perry
Albert Smith
Dale Weston
Dennis Laninger's General Contracting
Rock Oak Lumber

Energy for the strength to carry on was provided by
Parkview Pizza
Valarie Kranz
Eric Cooke

Please forgive any omissions and let me know about them. I was a little busy and may have incomplete notes. There is no-one that should be forgotten from these memorable weekends.

Please keep your eyes open for an announcement of a meeting soon. We need to reconvene to celebrate our progress and define our next tasks. The end is in sight!

Thanks,
Joan

Walking Trail - Weekend Two...

The following pictures show the trail that is being built around the perimeter of the pond. It is almost unbelievable the work that has been achieved over the past two weekends.

Before:

After:

The following pictures show some of the equipment and manpower behind the walking trail. For the few, dedicated volunteers that came to help out, the project progressed more than expected.

Walking trail - weekend one

The fountain is working great and doing its job!!

Discussion of the next task at hand for the walking trail.


George Oaks operates a mini excavator along the walking trail.

Prep work needed to build the walking trail around the pond requires the landscaping cloth to be removed from the entire perimeter of the pond. Luckily, we had some heavier equipment (besides our hands) to handle the job.


Albert Smith empties some of the landscaping cloth into the dump truck after its removal.