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Volunteers Repaint the Town of Gate City Green

From staff reports

It almost sounds like an unsolvable riddle. What do you get when take 5 gallons of green paint and add in 40 volunteers who are willing to work in hot, sticky weather for the betterment of their community?

But in this case, the answer is quite simply ... you get some dedicated volunteers who want to improve the downtown area of Gate City and are willing to give up a Saturday morning to work on it.

Gate City Town Manager Lynne Moore has only been on the job for a little over two months, but the soon-to-be 26-year-old is eager to make visible changes in the town.

She organized Saturday's first-ever Beautification Day and the event was more successful than she anticipated. "We got a lot more done than I expected," Moore explained. "Originally we planned to only paint the lights on one side of the street but with this enthused group we were able to paint all of the light poles."

Beginning with a kick-off breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 25, 40 volunteers arrived prepared to re-paint the town's faded Victorian light poles. The town's work crew had taped and prepared only one side of Jackson Street for the project but once the volunteers were let loose, the lights were quickly re-painted and the workers were ready for more. All of the 90 light poles were re-painted during the 3.5-hour event.

 Teams were organized into three person units and were given the cans of green paint and paintbrushes to complete the assignment. Members of the Gate City Public Works Crew and Town Hall employees assisted during the event. They scrambled to keep ahead of the painting crew.

Once the street lights were painted nearly to the top, public works employees will complete the job to the top of the pole. Work is continuing on the project and all light poles should be finished this week.

"It goes to show you how much you can accomplish with just a few people involved," explained Delta Purkey, one of the town's volunteers. Shortly after 11:30 a.m., volunteers had painted the street lights and had re-painted yellow no parking zones on curbs throughout the downtown area.

The entire group headed to Grogan Park to enjoy lunch provided by local sponsors.

Sponsors for the event included Athletics Unlimited, BB&T, Bellwether Research, Chris' Department Store, Cleaning Bee, employees of Dollar General Store, Gate City Civitan Club, Hackney Furniture, Tommy Herron, HJS Qwik Signs, Jeff Montgomery DDS, Jenkins School of Dance, Law Offices of Carrico and Jenkins, Mark's Hardware, Mountain Region Family Medicine, Mustard Seed Cafe, Perfect Pair Antique Mall, Pizza Plus, Quillin Hardware, Scott County Virginia Star, Subway, the Bank of Scott County and Uncommon Goods.

Workers on Saturday included Moore, Mayor Mark Jenkins and his wife, Jan, Town Council Members: Tommy Herron and Rita Tipton, town employees: Cindy Coates, Rhonda Stacy, Jessica Kaarlela, Stoney Falin, Gary Dougherty, Jerry Fleenor, Darrell Stanley and Tyler Herron, Ginny Falin, Ariel Falin, Donna Dougherty, Garrett Dougherty, Dennis Fritz, Cory Eads, Jacobi Eidson, Charlie Syer, Kimberlee Matney, Carol and Jay Dixon, Sandy Jenkins, Delta Purkey, Kim and Stan Jenkins, Lisa McCarty, Richard Hubbard, Bill Draper, Moya Draper, Stephanie Stokes, April Mister, Mackenzie McCormick, E. Mahoney and Sue Coatney.

The town plans to hold a similar beautification day in April 2007. Volunteers will be asked to help town crew plant flowers and complete other beautification projects.

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