Norris gazebo fund hits goal in 9 days
Community spirit is alive and well in Norris, as the group raising money to replace the roof and re-stain the iconic downtown gazebo reached its $6,000 goal in just nine days in August, one of its members said Monday.
“When people of this community value something, they will invest in it,” said Lisa Barger, who collaborated with Cynthia Edrington, Mike Robinson and Bonnie Peacock as the “Save the Gazebo Team.”
“While we reached our goal in nine days, what’s important is how many people donated,” Barger said. “We had 48 donations – some couples and some individuals donated.”
She said the plans for the gazebo renovations will be taken to the City Council for its approval and acceptance of the donations on Monday (Sept. 8), and work could begin within days.
“We’re really excited,” she said. “It will be done pretty quickly. We have already picked out the shingles. We hope to have it finished by the first of November.
“Our contractor for the new roof will be JTI Construction of Knoxville, and we will have community volunteers doing the re-staining of the structure. We also plan to replace some of the benches inside, and hope to install lights inside, as well, so people can sit there in the evenings.
“It’s not a fancy structure, but it’s iconic for Norris,” Barger said. “The kids sit in it all the time [after school]. We will have the Christmas lights and tree there again this year.”
Jane Stribling, who donated the gazebo and the land on which it sits to the city of Norris in August 1998, wrote on Facebook in early August that she and others were working with the Norris Lions Club to seek donations for the new roof. She also spoke during the Aug. 11 council meeting about the fundraising effort.
“Please support the fund to replace the Norris Town Center gazebo roof!” she wrote on Facebook. “The gazebo has been a cozy gathering place in Norris since 1998.
“It was the [brainchild] of my late ex-husband, Charley Wells,” Stribling said. “He grew up in Norris, retired here, and we donated the gazebo for the enjoyment of Norrisonions and their guests.”
The fundraising campaign was not initiated by or given advance approval by the city, which owns the gazebo and its site.
City Manager Adam Ledford said the council had placed $5,000 in the city budget two years ago to pay for a new gazebo roof.
But three of the four contractors the city had approached for potential bids on the project said the foundation under the roof also needed replacement, and subsequently the $5,000 allocation was removed from the budget and no action was taken.
Barger said, however, that three contractors the Save the Gazebo group contacted had inspected it and said it was salvageable.
Each holiday season, volunteers with the Norris Shines group put up about 10,000 lights on the gazebo, and decorate it with wreaths.
