LIVERMORE FALLS – Geneva Hodgkins bent down and snapped off dead flower blooms from their stems Thursday at Union Park.
She volunteered to maintain the park, which is a gateway to town, at the intersection of Main, Union and Church streets, three years ago.
“It was quite a mess when I started taking care of it,” she said. “I went around and got donations. People in town were just wonderful and even people from out of town donated.”
Hodgkins, 81, built what she calls “Geneva’s Garden,” a raised flower bed, out of landscape stones. She also had materials donated for two benches the first year and volunteers helped put them together.
She’s added flowers, a bird bath, more trees, including a plum and a cherry, and just had the flagpole sandblasted and painted. Howie’s Welding & Fabrication did the work and added a yard arm to the pole. The pole was re-installed this week between the war monuments.
Workers and owners of the company also just finished refurbishing a cannon believed to be built in the Civil War that used to sit on the high school hill. Selectman Russell Flagg donated the wooden wheels encased in metal and has carried the cannon from one place to another on his pulp truck. The cannon will be set near the birch trees at the rear of the park.
On Saturday, veterans will hold a flag-raising dedication service at 10 a.m.
Hodgkins has lots of plans for the park. She does a little more each year.
As a child, she would visit the park and play for hours.
“At the time, I lived in Jay, and we used to come here every week,” she said. “Everybody knew each other. We don’t know so many people now.”
Years ago, the town’s gazebo was at the park and there was a waterfall and popcorn was sold by the bag for 10 cents, she said.
“It was a challenge to get it back to its old self,” she said of the park. “I wanted a place for people to come and sit and enjoy the flowers and stuff going on in town. When I go by and see people sitting here I just flutter with joy. … I hope someday, if I live long enough, to have a waterfall.”
It’s a lot of work, she said, but people have been very good and helped out.
“I think it is so, so pretty,” Hodgkins said. “I enjoy every minute that I come here.”
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