Bricks to help rebuild gardens

Paving bricks can be engraved as a memorial to family or friends.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Members of the Village Gardeners Garden Club hope the community takes advantage of an opportunity to honor family members while participating in a project to preserve history.
Work started last month on the first phase of the plan to restore Centennial Gardens, next to village hall.
The work is being done in three phases as funding becomes available.
The first phase involves replacement of the overgrown shrubs in the gardens with a pergola, an arborlike structure with columns, found in gathering places in Greece.
The phase is being completed with contributions from the community and a grant from a private foundation.
The pergola will be surrounded by a floor of engraved bricks, called the Circle of Friends.
"That is a way to honor and pay a lasting tribute to loved ones, families and groups and at same time, help re-create the beautiful gardens in the heart of historic Poland," said Ginny Meloy, a member of the garden club and the project committee.
She hopes that the first phase is completed in the next few weeks, but bricks are still available.
"That's really the heart of the rest of campaign, to enlarge the Circle of Friends and include more people in it," Meloy said.
A ring of roses will encircle the bricks.
What it costs
The bricks cost $100 each with engraving limited to three lines and no more than 10 letters per line. Brochures with more information about the bricks are available at village hall.
"We're pleased with the support from the community, and we hope that those who haven't purchased a brick yet will purchase one," Meloy said. "It's a great way to honor a family, an individual, a group or an organization. Their name will be there for posterity."
Phases two and three include additional memorial trees, bushes, ground cover and stonework.
The 9-foot-high pergola, donated by the family of one of the club members as a memorial gift, is at the garden's center, and the remainder will comprise four quadrants.
One quadrant will be named for U.S. President William McKinley; the other three will be named for early Poland settlers Turhand Kirtland, Johnathan Fowler and B.F. Lee.
Gardens' origin
The original gardens were created in 1923 by Judge James B. Kennedy, and the house became village hall in 1960.
To mark the village's 100th anniversary of incorporation, village and township residents restored the Centennial Gardens in 1966, planting trees, shrubs and thousands of flowers.
Members of the Poland gardeners club have tended the gardens since that time using its funds.