More on Outdoor Spaces...

While sidewalks all around our city are an enormous task that will require lots of money and hard work, it is a doable and necessary project. Little by little we will chip away at the barriers that prevent better walking areas and then see them installed. Time and patience - two words with which we will become very friendly.
Another big and wonderful project was the installation of benches and game tables throughout our community. Often when you go to a park or trail, there are benches with no backs or simply no benches at all. If a person plans to spend some time at the park, visiting, picnicking, or watching kids play, backs get tired without support. This gave the Age- and Dementia-Friendly Winnemucca Project a goal: benches with backs placed strategically around town.
Good, sturdy benches are pricey. Even though we ordered 10 in bulk, with the same Winnemucca Centennial logo on the back, each came to total of $1266. But they are beautiful. The game tables are equally as gorgeous - polished red or tan granite with a checker board/chess board game table etched into each (and also very expensive!). We had these designed with a stool on opposite sides, leaving room for wheelchairs or lawn chairs on the other two sides. The tables and benches can now be found in our parks, along the Haskell Street walkway, and you'll even spy a table and a bench in Denio, Nevada, a community 100 miles northwest of Winnemucca. As Denio set to open its new library, we thought how perfect! A bench and a table for a wonderful grand opening in one of our rural towns.
The biggest problem with the tables and benches - and one that I learned the hard way? Payment. I had people stop me on the street, grab me aside at meetings, call me on the phone, and send email requests: "Please order a bench/table for me/our family!" A believer and one who complies, I ordered these and then surprise! Some folks had changed their minds and no longer wanted to invest in our project. As a result I scurried about town, made phone calls and pleas, and also tossed extra cash into the kitty to pay our bill. Again, lesson learned: "Show me the money!" before I will order even the simplest item.