Botetourt County Establishes New Adopt-A-Park Initiative

FINCASTLE — The Botetourt County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism recently announced the creation of the Botetourt Beautiful Program, which is an adopt-a-park type program.

The program is designed  to recognize and encourage community groups, civic organizations, businesses, or individual citizens for contributing to the upkeep or enhancement of their neighborhood parks, public access sites, trails, or other public property.

The Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism currently provides ground maintenance and landscaping for county- owned business parks, libraries, government buildings, recreation parks, and 11 schools.

In addition, the department also assists with upkeep of the eight public access points along the 45-miles of the Upper James River Water Trail.

The creation of the Botetourt Beautiful Program provides a set of guidelines and minimal requirements for volunteers to get involved in the upkeep or improvements on the property of their choice.

In exchange for the commitment, the individual, club, or business will receive an acknowledgment sign at their assigned location and a framed copy for display in their home or place of business.

“The county’s new Botetourt Beautiful Program will be another avenue for the citizens to get involved and help improve an aspect of their community that they are passionate about,” said Richard Peters, director of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. “The program soft launched over the summer of 2014 at several locations with positive feedback from participants and produced some excellent results.”

Boxley Materials Company has adopted Boxley Park and infused over $5,000 worth of improvements within the park, including a new entrance sign, stone for the parking lot, and a new set of stairs for better accessibility to the lower field terrace.

Columbia Gas Company has adopted the Gala Boating Access and has committed to install heavy duty park-service style trash containers and to handle the trash removal responsibilities.

For more information,  call (540) 473-8326.