News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Jamestown’s Mark Twain Park will celebrate renovations during a ground breaking Tuesday.
Longtime Volunteer Crystal Thompkins said they added a new statue to the park of a metal flower with a bookworm reading “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in honor of Mark Twain. Thompkins said she hopes the beatification effort will help people to better appreciate the town and its history.
“It’s just something new and beautiful for our small town that gives it respect, and you go through, you go through the city, you say, ‘Oh, that is so pretty in the middle of the town that people can sit and use,'” Thompkins said. “So that’s kind of what the ribbon cutting is good at teaching, to let people know they can use that.”
The Jamestown Rotary Club worked with the Jamestown Garden Club on the renovations. Thompkins said the project funded by a grant from the Rotary Club Foundation.
Thompkins said they also installed a book box at the park that will be filled with books for citizens to take and return or exchange with their own books. She said the club did other work at the park including putting up new picnic tables, installing fencing with assistance from the city, and adding new flowers with the help of the Jamestown Garden Club.
“We feel like reading is one of the basic needs of children and our community,” Thompkins said.
Thompkins said the renovations will hopefully add to the overall beauty of Jamestown’s downtown.
“We have several around the square, some restaurants, some different things that people are bringing their lunch and sitting at the new picnic tables and enjoying the weather, and with the summertime coming on we are so proud to be able to make our city beautiful,” Thompkins said.
The event takes place at the park Tuesday at 12:30pm.
