New benches of recycled rubber

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News

June 10, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Twenty new six-foot-long benches, made of recycled vehicle tires, now are available for people attending Iola Municipal Band concerts on the courthouse square.
The benches, each capable of comfortably holding five adults, replaced 11 metal and fiberglass benches 16 feet long that had been in place well over 25 years.
“They were getting pretty bad,” said Ron Holman, courthouse maintenance supervisor. “The fiberglass was ragged and there were a lot of sharp edges on the metal. I’ll bet they caused some scratches and torn clothing the last few years.”
The county was responsible for half of the $8,970 bill for 30 of the environmentally friendly benches. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment paid the other half courtesy of a grant.
Holman said eight of the 10 benches not positioned in front of the bandstand were placed elsewhere on the lawn. One was sent to the 911 dispatch center and another was issued to Public Works, for use at the airport or shop at the south edge of town.
“We got the benches June 1 and I wanted to have them ready for the first band concert the next night,” Holman said.
What seemed like a Herculean task for Holman and Teena Solander, also on the maintenance staff, got much easier when Bill King, director of Public Works, dispatched a crew of eight to help out.
“The benches have predrilled holes to fasten the backs and seats to the frames, which meant they went together pretty quickly with the extra help,” Holman said. “They were ready in plenty of time for the first concert.”
“Some of the rubber in the benches may have come from our landfill,” Holman added. The company that constructed the benches, Champlin Tire Recycling, Concordia, picks up waste tires at the landfill.

BENCHES replaced belong to the city of Iola.
“I’d forgotten they did until the county called,” said Berkley Kerr, Iola’s Parks Department superintendent.
He recalled that 25 years ago, when he started with the city, one of the park crew’s chores was to haul the benches between Riverside Park, where they were used at the ball fields, and downtown for band concerts.
Kerr isn’t entirely certain what will become of the benches, now stored at the power plant, but he said that if they were to be used again the fiberglass seats and backs would be replaced.
“We may cut them in two and put on wooden seats,” he said. “That’d give us some nice eight-foot benches to put around town.”
The KDHE grant won by Allen County was one of 24 totaling $350,000 announced earlier this year. Money to fund the grants came from a 25-cent tax paid on new tires sold in Kansas.
About 140,000 tires are involved in projects funded by the grants.
Last year Gas used similar KDHE grant money to build the quarter-mile walking track made of recycled vehicle tires in Fees Park.

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