The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Restore & more: Timber Town project a community effort
PUBLISHED: May 3, 2007
It was a warm spring day in 2006 when Gloria Mitchell and her daughter Amy went to Timber Town to play with her grandchildren. Amy had looked forward to taking her own children to Timber Town so that they could play on "Grandma's playground."
Advertisement
Upon arriving, Mitchell was a bit taken by the toll that time, weather and play had taken on the structure. It had been at least five years since Amy had been to Timber Town.
Although many community service organizations and the City of Chelsea did their best to manage the structure for 10 years, it was apparent that more money and time needed to be dedicated to fixing the structure.
After a series of discussions with the original structure architects Leather's and Associates, Mitchell knew that this structure was in need of a complete overhaul. Within about two months of the Timber Town visit that spring, the Chelsea Standard featured an article about the restoration effort, calling upon community volunteers and supporters to come forward and volunteer to be a part of the restoration effort. The City of Chelsea had some monies remaining earmarked for Timber Town from the original project, however it was not enough to cover the expense of the project.
After the article appeared and several people came forward and offered their support, the Friends of Timber Town was born. A group of six dedicated Chelsea citizens, including Michelle Mitchell, the Chelsea Recreation Council director, Dennis Crawley, Jeff Dehring, Jim McInnis, Amy Mitchell and Tracie Faupel began the work to organize and stage the restoration event. The Friends of Timber Town is an organization that operates under the City of Chelsea, which acts as their fiscal agent. Being that Timber Town resides on city property, it behooved FTT to continue that fiscal relationship.
First the group realized that it needed money to complete the project. Rather than turning to the local economy and Chelsea businesses that are called upon so often, Amy Mitchell, under the wings of Michelle Mitchell, set out to write a grant. The grant request was to cover the restoration costs, as well as provide for a future maintenance fund, which would ensure the integrity of the structure for years to come.
The grant compilation process took about two months and when completed the grant was submitted in December 2006 to the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan. In April the Friends of Timber Town received word that the grant request had been approved from the Chelsea Community Foundation. With elation and vigor the group set out to finalize the restoration event details.
In less than 60 days, FTT set the restoration dates, recruited volunteers for the hardware restoration event, secured additional financial backers, set up T-shirt and tote bag fundraisers and reached out to service organizations to provide meals and volunteer labor for both events.
What would happen next, is in the true spirit of Timber Town and the citizens of Chelsea.
On the one year anniversary, April 13th, 2007, of the tragic accidents of Matt Tuttle and Scott Sumner, FTT received a phone call. The call was from Jack Long, a local resident and boy scout troop leader, who wanted to do something to honor our fallen heroes. Jack had secured St. Mary Church, Knight's of Columbus and boy scout troop support to hold a benefit dinner for May 11. Jack had hoped that the effort would raise over $5,000 and would add two additional pieces of play equipment. The play equipment is a fire engine and a police car, both made in memorial of Scott and Matt.
Additionally, Jack offered further support of the boy scouts in the May 26 hardware restoration event, the first of two restoration events on Timber Town. From there, the dominos fell into place. Thirteen skilled or licensed builders came forward to take ownership of one of 13 zones on the Timber Town site. A zone could include the replacement and repair of all swings, the replacement and repair of the tot lot section, sand digger installation and bell chime installation.
The zone manager would provide the needed tools and labor required to complete the job. Further, Dave Marsh of My Home Town Handy Man in Chelsea offered to spearhead the painting and sealing initiative on May 26. Each rooftop and trim piece will have to be repainted after the structure is powerwashed.
Further, The Tree House, Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home and Thompson's Pizza offered monetary donations and food to feed the workers on May 26. Friends of Timber Town estimate that 50 volunteers are needed to complete the hardware restoration work on May 26.
Patti DeYoe, a Chelsea Middle School art teacher, has organized a mural painting which will be featured on the new rock wall at Timber Town. This mural has been designed by Patti's students and will be painted in time for play on June 10.
The June event, which will provide opportunities for all people to help restore Timber Town, continues that community spirit. Again, the boy scouts of Chelsea have offered a huge token of support as well as individual volunteers running the sanding stations, sign in and sealing stations. These stations will serve as hubs for volunteer worker flow.
Also on June 9 and 10, the Chelsea Kiwanis wagon will be on site, offering food and beverages to workers on a donation basis. All additional monies generated will be given back to the Friends of Timber Town for future maintenance on the structure.
While all of the parents are hard at work on Timber Town, they can rest assure that their young children will be well cared for. Diane Bloom, a Chelsea resident and girl scout troop leader, has offered to take on the management of a day-care facility in the Washington Street Center, Community Education Preschool building. Children who are potty trained and ages 3 and up are invited to attend. Bloom estimates that the facility and their workers can accommodate up to 60 children.
The daycare will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 9.
Chelsea Resident Bill Lamb, a member of the classic rock band FenderBender, has offered his band for a benefit concert. FenderBender will play at the structure's reopening at 5 p.m. on June 10 to add to the fun and family atmosphere. FenderBender also hopes that the concert drives additional donations to benefit the structure's future maintenance needs.
"It's communities like Chelsea that people are gravitated to," said Amy Mitchell. "Because of projects like Timber Town, we all grow together, get to know our neighbor and community a little bit better. See you all June 9 and 10 and come prepared with your paint brushes, buckets, sand paper and shovels."
Timber Town will be closed beginning May 1. The pavilion, parking lot and green space will be available during the renovation period.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
