Volunteers Help Build Retaning Wall
Over a few weekends in April, the Tower Lakes volunteer community came out in force to continue construction on the new tennis courts. Several Tower Lakes residents spent their weekend clearing away debris, leveling the ground and slowly building a retaining wall at the front of the courts. With strong community effort, and a will to complete the project, the wall was built in a little over 20 hours. The wall was constructed with 320 cement blocks (weighing 80 pounds each). Each block was placed in a staggered design so as to shift the weigh of the wall into the courts and away from the street (see photo at right). At each level, the blocks were filled with small pebbles, which will serve as water channels. A drainage system was also installed at the base of the wall. Kathy Covek, Jack Johnson, and Victor Mannina served as the volunteer project managers. “The community saved thousands of dollars by completing some of the work ourselves. It also kept the project on track for completion in May,” said Jack Johnson.
The wall will be topped off with cap blocks in the next few weeks. Then four inches of gravel will be compacted over the entire surface onto which three inches of asphalt will be laid. Three or four days later, the fencing will be installed. After two weeks of curing, the coloring and stripping will be done. Once complete, the courts will be a great investment in our community.
Special thanks go to Victor Mannina, who operated the back hoe/front end loader, and supervised the construction of the wall. We had several individuals who spent all day working on the wall and some who could only give us an hour or so. “I’m so pleased with the turn out of volunteers in the community who spent much of their weekend helping out on the project. It was much appreciated,” said Jack.“
Thank you to the following volunteers who “built the wall”:
Ray Boe, Betsy Brookbank, Chris Burgoon, Dave Conway and sons Kai and Jet and cousin Nathan, Bill Crowther, Bob and Kathy Covek, Joe Davey, Jack Johnson, Will Knight, Tom Kubala, Derek and Jean Mall, sons Owen and Calen, daughter Annabel, Victor Mannina, Brad Merkle, Bob Nash, Brian and Leslie Olson, sons Dylon and Ryder, Mel and Anne Gavic Ott, John Schmidt, Rick Steffen, John Yancey, and Cass Young.