BHS project
preserving bit of history
October 19, 2004
Blair Enterprise By Joe Burns Reporter
Blair High School
students who are taking plants and soils and home maintenance classes, both
taught by agriculture teacher Matt Kreifels, are putting classroom skills into
practice.
The bare traffic island at the intersection of 10th and Jackson streets near the
high school is in the process of becoming a landscaped site for a historical
marker commemorating the old Lincoln Highway, which once was located nearby. The
roadway was the first transcontinental highway between New York and California.
Last spring, Kreifels’ horticulture class planned and designed the traffic
island project. This fall, his students are constructing the design using nearly
1,000 bricks that previously paved a portion of South Street. The students will
also be installing $1,200 in plant materials, including 15 species of native
grasses, and perennials that will provide color throughout the growing season.
The agriculture instructor was aware that the bricks were available because the
Blair FFA chapter that Kreifels’ sponsors had helped to stack and save the
bricks when they were rescued from South Street.
Blair Historical Preservation Alliance President Ed Jipp not only agreed to let
the classes use the bricks, but asked if the association could incorporate the
highway historical marker on the site.
The landscape project is the result of a grant from the Nebraska Statewide
Arboretum to beautify street corridors. The arboretum grant is providing
two-thirds of the $5,000 budget and the school district is responsible for the
rest. In addition to the traffic island, grant funds are to be used to landscape
the embankment between Jackson Street and Krantz Field.
Kriefels said the horticulture class will plan the embankment project this
spring, and then plant it next fall. The landscaped embankment area would cover
more than 5,000 square feet.
“We will be looking for some additional help with the grant,” Kreifels said.
The historical marker is funded by the Historical Preservation Alliance through
a separate local grant. |
