Crozet Park Gets a Manpower Boost

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From left: Kelly Strickland, Brad Heilman, Caleb Strickland (rear), Devin Collier and Ellen Braun planted fence posts along the main entry to the park to facilitate the installation of temporary lattice barriers for events that require them.
From left: Kelly Strickland, Brad Heilman, Caleb Strickland (rear), Devin Collier and Ellen Braun planted fence posts along the main entry to the park to facilitate the installation of temporary lattice barriers for events that require them.

More than 70 volunteers turned out at Claudius Crozet Park April 26 for Comcast Cares Day to tackle a lengthy list of fix-up projects that the park needed help with. Comcast sponsors an annual community volunteer day that it urges its employees to participate in. The volunteers included both Comcast workers and local residents who wanted to join in the push. County Parks and Rec provided a tractor and other landscaping tools, plus a load of gravel and additional volunteers.

All the standing fencing at the park was painted. New fence posts were installed along the entry drive. The sections of board fencing removed along Park Road earlier in the month will be rebuilt in the next couple of weeks. Potholes in the drives were filled with gravel, trees were trimmed and landscaping was spruced up and mulched. The information kiosk and the concession stand were painted. Flooring in the shed that stores the pool dome over the summer was fixed. Waterline valves got fixed. More was accomplished in clearing the new dog park site.

And thanks to a donation from Comcast that is based on how many volunteers show up, the park will likely recover all the expenses for materials that it needed to provide to enable the volunteers to do the jobs, said park board president Kim Guenther.

Shawn Johnson, Comcast’s local director of business operations, said the company has sponsored the volunteer day for 14 years. Nationwide, about 80,000 Comcast employees participate. Projects are selected in regions and this year the company selected the park as the beneficiary.

“We pick a different place every year and we’ve never picked Crozet, so this year we chose the park. We know the park depends on volunteers.” Comcast handed out T-shirts and breakfast bars to get things started and brought in pizzas at lunch. “We had great weather and good turnout,” said Johnson. “It’s very possible we’ll be back in a few years.”