ORANGE PARK – Volunteer Day to support Pond to Park Project on College Drive attracted community leaders, residents and volunteers from Lowe’s Home Improvement who spent the day digging in the dirt to transform a spillage pond into a recreational nature park last Friday, Nov. 4.

The cleanup is part of the first phase to pump new energy into College Drive to make it a destination, not a thoroughfare between County Road 220 and Blanding Boulevard.

More than 50 worked in the heat and with the calamity of cars zooming by to rally to support the Pond to Park Project. They hunched over shovels, dug potholes, planted sapling pine trees and hauled 20-pound bags of mulch and manure to be spread around the site. Others set up benches for public use.

“The turnout was more than I could ever dream for. We have almost forty, maybe fifty volunteers today. We’re going to finish this project even quicker than I wanted us to,” said Brain Rau, the sales and merchandising business manager for the local Lowes at Orange Park.

The home improvement warehouse donated approximately $6,000 worth of materials and provided labor support for the project.

“There’s a lot of ongoing projects in this space that Lowes wants to be a part of,” Rau said. “This is the beginning of a long-lasting relationship with a lot of the things we want to accomplish here.”

County Commissioner Mike Cella, County Manager Howard Wanamaker and former Orange Park Councilmember Connie Thomas all were in work clothes and gloves to help.

“Here we are today for a great volunteer opportunity for residents to get involved and they all turned out in a big way,” Cella said. “We have Lowes here today, Challenge Enterprises, Operation Barnabas and Public County Works, as well as College Drive Initiative volunteers to turn what was essentially a stormwater pond into a beautiful park. We’re planting trees and bushes. We’re paving a patio and eventually, there will be benches out there, too, so people can look out at the pond and enjoy nature.”

The viewing area will be accessible to walkers and wheelchairs. The project came out of College Drives’ Deliberative Dialogue, a conversation group for citizens of Clay County to be a part of envisioning the future of their community, as well as implementing projects to improve the area.

A steering group, including government leaders and staff, nonprofit agency employees and business owners contributed to creating this dialogue resource.

“This is a great example of how government can work alongside private initiatives and residents,” said Cella. “In this case, the residents are taking control of the situation and asking the government to help where it can, and I think that’s a great experiment that we’ve started. Even though this is one small ending, it will be an ongoing process. It’s a great example of how residents have rallied and showed up for their community.”

Rau is currently in the process of submitting a presentation for Lowe’s 100 Hometowns $100,000 grant which supports towns in need across the country with 100 improvement projects. Rau was a recipient of a grant in Palatka, which he used to beautify the riverfront and build an amphitheater. Parks and Recreation director, Justin Piece, is also excited to work with the community on future endeavors, as well as the future of the Pond to Park project.

“Eventually, the park will have a walkway that will proceed around the pond for people to walk. We also hope that Pace School For Girls and other organizations will be able to utilize it for educational purposes. And then hopefully, we can have some connectivity with the elementary school and the residents, and the neighborhoods they live in. It serves multiple purposes,” he said.

The Pond to Park Project is only the first of what’s to come, and the first step in a much bigger plan to improve the area.

“We’re going to be working with an engineer and design teams, as well as a consulting firm to conceptualize what the park will look like and let those subject matter professionals give us their ideas so we can continue to build our action plan to work towards our long-range goals,” Pierce said. “So this is just another project that’s getting a lot of attention. We just want to do our best to make this county enjoyable for all people.”