Speaking Personally: Building Bailey Legacy Park Part 2: Many hands make for light work

In the second installment of our series on the new Bailey Legacy Park, I want to talk about all the details that have come together to make a pleasing whole. 

 

From the earliest planning stages, a sensory board has been part of the vision for the park. Immediately, we approached Children’s Behavioral Services for help. They ultimately became the sponsor for the board and suggested several designs. 

 

I chose one that had a musical theme. Calling on my brother, a music teacher recently promoted to elementary school principal, I chose pieces to install on the board that would last in Missouri weather. From plastic buckets donated by Pizza Americana to serve as drums to a brass cymbal and steel rain drum, to a tambourine and chimes, we can always tell when kids are playing in the park now. 

 

Children are filling quiet Main St. with joyful noise and laughter.

 

As I mentioned in part one, Callie Letterman and Brian Meeks laid the foundations of the park, and they began the sensory board, choosing the kitty cat mirror and small bells now installed. As busy springtime arrived, however, we needed more help. 

 

A shade shelter originally installed in a corner of the park did not survive its first Missouri thunderstorm, so we called in Wright Angle Construction, the company responsible for restoring the Smuck building last year, to help us finish these two projects before the planned mural-reveal Memorial Day Weekend. 

 

The day the giant mural was installed, the park was a busy place. Workers tore down the old canopy and built a permanent shade shelter for parents to sit while they watch children play. Then, they installed all the tinkling and jangling parts of the sensory board, now probably my favorite part of the park. 

 

In the time between construction projects, I had unwittingly signed myself up for a major gardening job. Our first attempt at beautifying the ancient clay soil flower beds was to plant seeds. The glorious profusion of sunflowers blooming now grew from that day’s efforts. As time went on, and only the sunflowers seemed to have germinated, I took advantage of the Willow Springs FFA’s plant sale and bought enough bedding plants to stuff the edges full of blooming beauties, telling myself all I had to do was keep them alive for 6 weeks until the reveal. 

 

And I nearly didn’t make it…

 

Apparently, you’re supposed to water flowers every day? Now I know, thanks to a helpful hint from the workers at Waggoner’s Home Center. I showed up in their garden center in disgrace to buy new potted plants for three I had killed. Timely rains and a new commitment to watering saved the lingering yellow plants, and they are thriving as of this writing. 

 

My husband and children planted most of the flowers and are hard at work most weekends weeding: crabgrass out of the lawn, volunteers between the cobblestones, and dandelions in the flower beds. 

 

Willow Springs High School students made another contribution to the park in the form of the mini-Bear Adirondack chairs. The woodshop students made them, and I think any kid who makes something with his or her hands deserves a shout-out. Thank you, wood shop class!

 

One part of the park that doesn’t seem to be a success is the cast-iron furniture by the Willow Wings mural. I had intended this to be a hangout spot for teens, but they seem to prefer to sit on the swings. I did stumble upon some teenagers drawing with chalk on the cobblestones, so maybe a chalk station would be a better use of the space?

 

Any suggestions? Any teenagers reading who have a thought for what would be the most useful on that patio?

 

This park is a community project, and I want its details to serve the community. We don’t have much space to waste. 

 

In the next and final installment of the series, we’ll focus on the details of the two murals in the park. If you have time between now and July 8, be sure to stop by and really look at them. They are masterful works of art, plain and simple.