American Legion Post 11 placed a picnic table in a shaded area near the Freedom Rock at the Raccoon River Valley Trail head on E. Lincoln Way in 2020. That shade, like much of the shade in Jefferson, was lost to the hunger of the Emerald ash borer.
American Legion members, with help from other local volunteers, replaced that shade with a 10’ X 14’ foot gazebo last month.
The new gazebo is from a premanufactured kit by a company in Pittsburg, KS. It is constructed of solid cedar and steel roofing, engineered for 100 mile an hour winds and 30 inches of snow on the roof.
Volunteer Don Labate did the hard work of digging footings down to 42 inches along the railroad bed. Four concrete footings were placed using 30 bags of premixed concrete. The wood border around the picnic table was then expanded to the size of the gazebo.
Total cost of the project was more than $1,900. “With projects like this, we have a two-fold purpose,” a Post 11 spokesperson said. “We want to serve the community and we want to keep our name in the public eye. Veteran organizations are just as important today as they were when the American Legion was founded over 100 years ago. We advocate for veterans on a local, state and national level.”
