Park Department Fence Offers Aesthetics
Eight-Foot Barrier Also for Security
Last updated Sunday, April 27, 2008 7:18 PM CDT in News
By Richard Dean Prudenti
THE MORNING NEWS
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BENTONVILLE -- The city is keeping a careful eye on the look of John DeShields Boulevard and adjacent properties leading west to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
A new 1,013-foot fence around park maintenance buildings and storage area just south of the boulevard has a dual purpose -- to increase security and improve aesthetics, said Doug Glaysher, the Bentonville park director.
"Security would be the first reason," Glaysher said.
Mowers, trailers, backhoes and trucks will be protected behind the 8-foot, shadow-box pine fence that cost the city $43,325. The fence is scheduled for completion by May 15, Glaysher said.
No equipment has come up missing in recent history, Glaysher said. However, 10 to 12 years ago, someone stole a brush hog mower from the site at 401 N.E. Moberly Lane. The city never saw the mower again.
J and H Contractors is building the fence with two gates -- one to provide access to park employees and one for deliveries.
Aesthetics is the second reason the city has invested in the fence. Roy Lovell, the park foreman, said the contractors will stain the pine wood dark to go with the brown bricks making up the pillars. Decorative mortar caps should be brought in for installation early next week.
"It's an eye-catching area for the city. We're trying to make our facility here look as good as the boulevard," said Randy Mattingly, a park department worker.
"(The fence) covers up our parking facility that is full of construction and mowing equipment," Mattingly said.
A new walking trail through the nearby Memorial Park goes around the park buildings, so "those people are looking at a pretty fence instead of our tractors," he said.
Mayor Bob McCaslin is entertaining the idea of a fountain inside a roundabout that is part of John DeShields Boulevard.
"This is just in the conversation stage, whether it's even possible to have a fountain. The discussion is that it would be nice to project the same visual image as you see on the square," McCaslin said.
Whatever the aesthetic alterations, the boulevard should "announce the entrance into a very special place," he said, referring to the museum.
Crystal Bridges, now under construction to the west, is scheduled to open in 2010.
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