ASHLAND – Six new benches grace Ashland’s Kinnaman Park, thanks to a donation from the Ashland Evening Lions Club. 

Evening Lions centennial project chairperson Bill Snyder said his club was looking for a way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Lions Clubs International and chose to upgrade Kinnaman Park, where the club has had a presence for years.  

“The park benches were pretty bad,” Snyder said. “They were wood, and though we had resurfaced them many times, they had reached a point where they looked bad.

“With all the positive things happening in the city, we didn’t want a park in the center of town to look bad.”

Club members wanted to take on the $3,900 project financially but couldn’t commit to doing the physical work because a majority of club members are aging, Snyder said. 

So the club reached out to the city’s parks director, Jason Counts, and the city and club worked together to make the club’s idea a reality. Counts handled logistics, and his staff installed the benches. 

Mayor Matt Miller said city leaders felt it was important that the new benches match the benches that were added downtown for the city’s bicentennial in 2015. 

“Now, you’ll see a consistency with the benches all throughout Main Street,” Miller said. 

He added that Kinnaman Park is frequently used by the downtown community, serves as the announcing area for various downtown parades and is situated at the highly visible intersection of Main and Center streets. 

The park’s facelift also includes new landscaping by Farm and Home Hardware.

Miller said that effort, too, was initiated by private citizens who wanted to improve the park. 

Business owner Cindy Jerousek said she and her husband, Scott, have enjoyed working on the park and have viewed the project as a win-win for Ashland and the business.

The project gives Farm and Home Hardware staff an opportunity to gain landscaping experience to better serve customers. Meanwhile, it beautifies the downtown community. 

“This is another example of a very proactive, positive, looking-to-the-future project that was made possible by a joint effort from those in the private sector — in this case, the Lion’s Club and Farm and Home Hardware — teaming up with the city.”

Miller said city leaders hope the project inspires other organizations to come forward.

“Let us know if there’s a place in the city where you think you could make a difference and make it look better.,” Miller said. “We want to know, because we’d love to work with you to make it happen.”