Melrose preparing for celebration of a centennial

A committee in Melrose is seeking donations and volunteers to help it beautify the village’s Baxter Memorial Park.

In preparation for Melrose’s 100th anniversary celebration in August 2005, the committee is putting in new plants and flowers, and building benches, tree boxes and playground equipment. The Melrose Rotary Club has even donated a drinking fountain for the park, said Lois Lesly, the committee’s chairman.

“We’ve set out red crab apple, white chatalpa, two pink rose of sharon bushes, a purple althea and a purple smoke tree. There’s also a bed of mixed colors of cannas. But we need about 90 more plants for a hedge around the edge of the park,” Lesly said.

“We need at least $6,000 more for plants, benches and equipment and we’re asking people for donations. But we’re also asking for volunteers to help with planting and watering. Until we get the new plants established and Melrose has someone to take care of them, we’ll need help,” she said.

Lesly said the park committee is composed of 10 Melrose citizens and herself. Although she now lives in Clovis, she was born in Melrose and her family came there in 1907, only two years after the village was founded, she said.

But the Clovis-Melrose connection is obvious in the committee’s work, she said.

Charles Guthals, owner of Guthals Nursery, created a blueprint for the park’s renovation and Triple Q Construction of Clovis has agreed to build a bench in the park.

Donations/volunteers

Those wishing to make a donation to help pay for the park’s beautification can send a check to the Melrose Park Fund care of American Heritage Bank, P.O. Box 318, Melrose, 88124.

Anyone wishing to volunteer to work in the park may call Lois Lesly at 762-5110 or Ruth Ashley at 253-4375.