By Katie Northcott, News Director
City of Tullahoma employees JP Paulsen, Tom Foster, and Ben Ebert volunteered their specialized skills to build a bridge to help seniors navigate a ditch near History Park in Downtown Tullahoma.
The city announced that the bridge had been built in a Facebook post on Monday, April 27.
Paulsen, Foster, and Ebert built the bridge on city time and used spare parts and welding skills. They were inspired to do the work after seeing “a few close calls and falls” as senior citizens attempted to navigate the ditch to attend events at the park. According to the city’s post, “significant dollars” were saved due to the men’s efforts.
At the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting on Monday, May 11, the Tullahoma Parks & Recreation Department plans to present a proposal to name the bridge “1LT Thomas Gwynn Veterans Bridge” in honor of Thomas Gwynn who recently passed away.
Gwynn, a World War II veteran, was known as “The Greatest Ranger That Ever Was” and before his death, was Tullahoma’s oldest resident at 106. A dogwood tree has been planted in Gwynn’s honor.
The city’s Facebook post about the bridge is copied below.
In the 2005 animated movie, “Robots”, the main character named Rodney has a catch phrase, “See a need, fill a need.” Last week, the staff at Parks and Recreation did exactly that.
There are several events with a large senior and veteran attendance at History Park in Downtown Tullahoma. A recurring issue we see are people attempting to navigate the deep ditch along Atlantic St. on foot, and we’ve seen a few close calls and falls. Parks administration and the Parks grounds crew got together with Community Engagement, and we built a bridge, literally. The ditch will no longer be an issue to cross, as Tom, JP, and Ben used their spare time, spare parts, and welding skills to construct this short pedestrian bridge in advance of expanding the walkway access to be easily accessible and ADA compliant. They built it in-house from scrap and from scratch, saving significant dollars to make our Blue Star and Gold Star Memorials more accessible to our mobility-challenged veterans. An improved sidewalk access to compliment this is coming soon. Nicely done, Tullahoma Parks and Recreation!
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