ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996 TAG: 9607290064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
LOOKING FOR GREEN SPACES? Bedford has them. The city spends more per capita on parks than other Virginia localities its size. Now it's adding a new park to its offerings.
For three years now, A.C. Fuller has been driving his Bedford City Parks and Recreation Department truck around, waving and talking to people, feeding ducks or sitting at picnic tables.
Over at Edmund Street Park, he stops to talk to the fellow who lives next door. Until about two weeks ago, Fuller didn't know Arsbon Johnson's name, but they are on friendly terms after nearly three years of frequent chats about the park and the neighborhood.
Fuller knows a lot of people in Bedford by face because of his job. He's the one-man parks maintenance department for parks, recreation and cemeteries.
It's a job he loves. He's as comfortable talking about the park's nature trail as he is proud of the planks he laid to get his lawn mower over a creek that runs through the park.
Fuller cuts the grass, stripes the ballfields, removes trash, paints the doors on bathrooms and is the overall fix-it man. Although he gets help from cemetery workers and a couple of temporary workers during the summer, Fuller is usually at it alone.
"A.C. has a closet full of hats, and he puts on a different hat for whatever he needs to - driving the bus, striping the field," City Manager Jack Gross said.
Fuller knows the regulars who visit the parks or participate in recreational activities. One lady who visits Liberty Lake Park to feed the ducks calls to make sure Fuller has fed them when she can't get to the park.
He misses Alton and Janet Wilson when they don't make their afternoon visits to the same park, where they sit and view the Peaks of Otter.
"We didn't choose to buy a pricey house with a view of the peaks," said Janet Wilson, 70. Instead, the couple, who moved to Bedford almost five years ago, spend three or four evenings a week in the park, watching the ballfields "and looking at the wonders of nature."
Liberty Lake has become "sort of a touchstone for us," she said, describing her 73-year-old husband and herself as "passive onlookers or spectators" when it comes to recreation and entertainment.
Alton Wilson said they find solace in Liberty Lake Park. They've done the nature walk, but sitting in the park, in their car most of the time, is "relaxing for us," a habit they started after their three children were grown.
Fuller spends about 70 percent of his time taking care of Liberty Lake Park, the city's largest recreational facility, but he regularly visits the seven others to ward off problems, believing people take better care of the parks if the facilities are clean and repaired.
"I really enjoy being responsible for the parks because I enjoy that kind of work," said Fuller, a former truck driver. "But sometimes it gets to you, making sure everything is clean and safe."
Fuller, who also worked grounds and maintenance for the Elks National Home, said the hardest part of the job is "keeping everything mowed and picked up."
Littering and graffiti on bathroom walls are his biggest problems. There's not much vandalism, but park department employees occasionally have to call the police for visitors suspected of dealing drugs.
"We have a reputation of not tolerating it," said Fran Hart, director of parks and recreation and cemeteries.
Also, she said, "I give the community credit for encouraging the attitude that vandalism is not good."
Parks are important in Bedford, a city of nearly 7,000 people. When parks and recreation officials and others who work for the city talk about parks, they include not only the grassy green areas with tennis and basketball courts, swings, slides, baseball diamonds and ponds, but also the many classes and trips they sponsor.
Bedford devotes about 80 acres to recreational facilities, and City Council allocated more than a half-million dollars for parks and recreation in the 1996-97 budget. That includes $75,000 for the infrastructure of a new park on prime commercial land that was donated to the city. During that same period, $397 million was spent on recreation in Virginia.
Hart said the budget has been around the half-million dollar mark for a couple of years, but services are continuing to grow.
Although "we are doing more with less," she said Bedford officials have shown a commitment to saving green spaces.
The number of park facilities and programs for a city the size of Bedford is what drew Hart from a parks and recreation job in Christiansburg six years ago.
Bedford officials show a lot of foresight in their commitment to passive recreation development, she said. "You can never go back and set aside green areas" after they have been developed commercially or for housing.
Hart estimated it will take about $350,000 of volunteer and in-house labor and services to finish Reynolds Park.
Bedford spent $24.60 per resident for parks and recreation last year, a high for all Western Virginia localities, according to figures from the state Department of Parks and Conservation. Spending in Roanoke, Lynchburg, Roanoke County and Botetourt County ranged from $11.46 to $20.33.
Bedford, Hart said, has a tradition of providing recreation for residents whether they are young, old or physically disabled. Parks and recreation officials work with the chamber of commerce and travel and tourism bureau, "and our parks are quite a draw."
Officials expect to see more tourists at city parks after the D-Day Memorial, a national shrine, is completed.
The tradition started in the early 1940s when Bedford was part of the county system and didn't have facilities of its own. The departments separated in the early 1980s, and City Council has been very supportive in providing park and recreational services, Hart said.
"We are doing the kinds of things people want," Gross said in defense of spending for parks and recreation. "They see their tax dollars working, and they don't mind paying for those services through their taxes."
The emphasis, he said, is on giving "boys and girls the opportunity to learn to play, to learn skills and to have fun."
Gross predicted the commitment to quality recreation will continue. The city, he said, will have more growth in activities than in bricks and mortar.
Even though many of Bedford's facilities are for passive recreation - developed on the concept of relaxing rather than exercising - they get plenty of use. Many of the facilities aren't equipped with swings, slides, basketball and tennis courts and baseball fields but have ponds, nature trails, volleyball and racquetball courts and picnic areas.
Poplar Park, for example, consists of benches and a fenced-in area around the largest yellow poplar tree in the United States. The Virginia Forestry Association also said the tree, with a base 18 feet thick and 31 feet around, also is the largest of any species in Virginia.
City Lake Park is a wooded area with a large pond for fishing.
The 3-plus acres at Greenwood Park offer picnicking and play, while City Park in the downtown area has benches.
Arsbon Johnson was living next to what is now Edmund Street Park when it was a school field. The Bedford Training School, the former Susie B. Gibson High School, sits atop the hill on the upper end of the park, which adjoins Johnson's property.
He said neighborhood parks are important and he doesn't mind this one adjoining his yard. "We have that big park up there [Liberty Lake], but a lot of people don't have transportation and can't get to it."
A summer camp is held in Edmund Park, and Johnson often sits and watches the children. The park activities "keep the kids out of the street," he said.
Also, he said, the neighborhood has improved with the park. He feels safer because of the lights from the parks and the regular police patrols.
"I just want the city to keep [the park] clean, quiet and drug-free, and it is doing the best it can now," Johnson said.
``I don't have any problems.''
And then there's the 60-acre Liberty Lake Park, the gem of the Bedford City Parks and Recreation Department. Its amenities include a skateboard ramp, a volleyball court and a nature trail accessible to the handicapped. It drew 350,880 people last year for softball tournaments, nature walks, classes, tennis, volleyball and other activities.
During Christmas, 87,000 cars drove through the park to see Fuller's light display, which featured 13,000 lights on trees and structures.
The park also houses a community center where many classes and community meetings and events are held.
Fuller, the fix-it man, said that when he started working for parks and recreation, he spent the winter months making repairs. Now, so many activities are going on, there's little difference in overall use between the warm and cold seasons.
This past winter, for example, "we pushed a lot of snow" so residents had somewhere to sled and ski, he said.
LENGTH: Long : 161 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Jessica Coates (left) holdsby CNBBrandi Goff's hand as she see-saws with M.J. McGinnis during a day
camp held two weeks ago in Bedford's Edmund Park. Bedford's parks
drew 350,880 visitors last year. 2. Youngsters play basketball
during a July day-camp session at Edmund Park in Bedford. color. 3.
A.C. Fuller, a maintenance foreman for Bedford city parks, spends
about 70 percent of his time taking care of Liberty Lake Park, the
city's largest recreational facility. Graphic: Map.