Volunteers, businesses help city clear trails

In Springfield, as the Springfield-Greene County Parks Department focuses on day-to-day operations of its programs and facilities in addition to storm recovery, restoration of local parks and trails depends largely on volunteer efforts.

Expensive damages

Damage from the January 2007 ice storm was still being cleaned up when a flood hit in June. Tornadoes hit the region in January 2008, and another ice storm followed in February.

The result has been millions of dollars of damage to Springfield’s urban forest, parks and trails in the last 14 months.

The good news is that Ozark Greenways, the Springfield-Greene County Parks Department and local businesses are stepping up to help. The bad news is that cleanup efforts in 2008, unlike those last year, will not be aided by funds from the federal or state emergency management agencies.

The 2007 ice storm caused approximately $3.5 million in damage to the Springfield-Greene County Parks system, with $2.7 million covered by the federal and state emergency management agencies, said Springfield-Greene County Parks Director Jodie Adams.

“The bottom line is, we had to trim (more than) 16,500 trees, and then remove 1,800 trees,” Adams said.

Replanting has returned more than 250 trees to the system, but grinding down stumps left behind by the 2007 storm will continue for many years.

With February’s storm, “what you’ve got is more damage but no assistance. Now we have to try to clean up as we can and still run the daily system,” Adams added. “It could take us two years just to recover from this last ice storm.”

Terry Whaley, executive director of Ozark Greenways, said volunteers from his organization have been working with parks department staff and volunteers to clear trails of safety hazards, piling debris to the sides of the trails and cutting down hanging branches. Later efforts will include picking up and disposing of limb debris.

There are 85 miles of trails in the Greene County greenways system, Whaley said, including 35 miles of the Frisco Highline Trail.

While Ozark Greenways is a volunteer-driven, donor-funded organization, it has had some expenditures related to trail maintenance and the weather. “

We spent about $6,000 to $8,000 cleaning up the Polk County section of the Frisco Highline Trail from ice,” Whaley said, noting that the funds went toward contract brush removal.

“We spent about $13,000 on (June 2007) flood damage repairs in Polk County,” he added.

Business boost

Major help for Ozark Greenways has come from the local operation of Lousiana-based Lamar Advertising. Richard Rice, an Ozark Greenway board member and Lamar Advertising’s vice president and general manager, is leading the company’s cleanup assistance efforts.

Since fall, Lamar has been donating the services of six crewmembers and three bucket trucks to work on the trail from the Greene County border north into Polk County.

“The Greene County parks service does a great job on our trail on the Greene County side, but they really don’t have a program to take care of the other end,” Rice said.

“Until the tornado hit us, about one day a week my crews were out there working on the trail,” he added.

Lamar’s generosity has an estimated value of $1,000 per day for staff, vehicles and equipment, according to Rice, but it’s an investment that he sees as worthwhile.

“Ozark Greenways is a great thing for our community, and we just want to help out,” he said, noting that trail work can be a nice change of pace for Lamar employees.

“We make kind of a fun day out of it,” Rice said. “I pull our crews off their usual mundane jobs, and I usually get a barbecue lunch or something like that, and we go out and work on the trails.”

In the wake of January’s tornadoes and high winds, however, Lamar’s crews have been too busy taking care of the company’s billboards to do much with the trails, a situation Rice hopes will change in the near future.

Parks system additions

As parks department officials balance storm recovery with maintaining day-to-day operations, new additions to the parks system, including the Valley Water Mill Outdoor Initiatives Building, the Lake Springfield Boathouse and Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park have proven successful. Valley Water Mill is open and offering programs; the boathouse is attracting groups such as the Audubon Society and James River Basin Partnership, and it will begin offering weekend kayak and canoe rental this spring; and Rutledge-Wilson Farm’s Christmas at the Farm drew more than 5,000 visitors in two weeks and is a popular destination for families, according to parks officials.

Upcoming projects funded by the countywide parks sales tax include repair and renovation of the bathhouse at Fassnight Park, upgrades to Meador and Killian sports complexes, and construction of the Cruse Dog Park, which is primarily funded by donations and a state grant. Bids for the dog park are now being sought. Once bids are opened in April, a timeline will be established, but Adams hopes the dog park will open this fall.

Want To Help?

Ozark Greenways holds volunteer work days on the trails the third Saturday of each month. Call (417) 864-2015 for more information.

Springfield-Greene County Parks Department will be scheduling volunteer work days to clean up storm debris this spring. Call (417) 864-1049 to get placed on the volunteer list and be alerted when new work schedules are available.