Skip to content

Neighborhood Beautification Project

For about 12 years, I was on our neighborhood water board. Volunteers are how things work when you live in a rural unincorporated town. I got on the board as the recording secretary because I can type fast and spell, but ended up helping to make decisions about things that I knew almost nothing about, standing in the middle of the street watching water leak away and having no idea what to do about it, taking phone calls from people who were mad about their water bills or wondered why there was no water AGAIN, reading water meters, attending way too many meetings, driving around the neighborhood knocking on doors to hand out Boil Water Notices, calculating distances between wells and the road, measuring tanks and figuring out the volume of water, helping to tear down the old treatment plant, writing articles for the newsletter that no one read, putting locks on the meters of people who wouldn’t pay their water bill, removing the locks when they decided to pay.

It was hard. I learned a lot and made friends with the other board members, 2 benefits from the experience.

Two years ago I resigned. Meanwhile, I would walk past the treatment plant and think about how nice it would be to have a mural on the doors.

This building NEEDS a mural. 

Now that I have recovered from being water boarded, I want to give the gift of a mural to the current water board members and the entire neighborhood.

It took two years to decide what to paint. I used a card I drew back in 2001 of a made-up river scene, complete with Alta Peak and Moro Rock. This meant guessing the colors, and stretching things a bit.

Oops. It is actually 9 feet high, and the step stool is not high enough.
My blue ladder has a fold -down tray. It matches the masking tape, which marks the center of the doors and masks the lock and doorknob.
More blue. No backing out now.

 

To Be continued. . .

3 Comments

  1. What a wonderful gift to your fellow Three Riverians! (Is that a real word? It is now!) And now you know the joy (!) of volunteering to be on any board. Thick skin and much patience is required, but the rewards that you are serving your community are great!
    I look forward to seeing the progress of this mural!

    • Sharon, I was shocked by how much fun this was! This is a much more enjoyable albeit unnecessary way to serve my community.

      • Neighborhood art installations are never “unnecessary!” Everyone should serve as he is able–stuff an envelope, volunteer to be on a board, pick up trash, paint a mural. It’s all appreciated and good!

Comments are closed for this article!