Proud town celebrates its new-look park
As if it happened only yesterday, Jeff Towne remembers as a youngster climbing the huge tree across the street from the Congregational Church in Garvin during Sunday School. He also recalls the spanking he got from his mother afterward.
On Sunday, Towne relived that glorious memory during the christening of Garvin’s new park, which features a pickleball/ basketball court, complete with striping on the cement, new basketball hoops and backboards and a sand volleyball court.
“To see our little town not having things for the kids … it’s nice to have a new place for them,” said Towne, a major contributor to the park who grew up in Garvin and graduated from high school there. “I’ve basically been around this town my whole life.”
Towne donated his time and labor, as well as some money, to the new park. This meant he had some juggling to do between this project and his responsibilities as owner of Towne & Country Excavating.
“I tried to keep it so most of the work in town here I did myself,” he said. “Our big jobs have priority, and I have to let the guys keep working on them, so I did most of this myself.”
Towne said the pickleball/basketball court consists of 30 yards of concrete, 40 yards of topsoil and 50 tons of gravel. Another 50 tons of sand was brought in for the sand volleyball court that sits just to the west of the main court.
“We put some time into it,” Towne said. “Meeting with Jim and Joni, we were able to come up with a good plan with a nice site with room to build something nice.”
Jim is Garvin Mayor Jim Julien, and Joni is Joni Livingston, the driving force behind the small town’s big project. Livingston and company were able to secure a pair of grants to help pay for the new park features.
The park area was once occupied by a house owned by Tilly VanMeveren. Today, it’s home to kids — and adults if they want to try their hand at pickleball.
“When I was a kid, there wasn’t even a park there, it was a house,” Towne said. “All we had was the softball park downtown. “We didn’t have playground equipment — (the park) had a shelter, but there was no playground equipment.”
In her speech recognizing the day, Livingston told the crowd there is hopefully more to come in the future, including re-doing the open area near downtown and creating a new softball field. Jim Sehl and Livingston’s sister, Wendy Krueger, run a softball night every Wednesday during the summer.
The equipment — pickleball balls and paddles, basketballs
