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The City of Lima made a welcome dedication on Wednesday, 23 August 1995 when it dedicated much-needed playground
equipment. The $13,000 project was helped quite a bit by a $7,000 donation from Shawnee Optical and a $2,000 one from Time
Warner Cable. The project's impetus came from a challenge laid down by Jeff Ross, Shawnee Optical's marketing director. He
challenged local Lima businesses to donate money to the city's parks, and then he backed up his challenge with Shawnee Optical's
rather large donation. Now that the park had so much new equipment, it just needed landscaped. That would be taken care of
the very next year. On 20 April 1996, residents planted 80 pine, oak, and maple trees to really dress up the park. This was all made possible through money donated by about 700 families through their monthly water bills. They were asked on their monthly city utility bills to donate money to a capital improvements fund to be used to improve the parks. The $10,000 project also made it possible to install eight new sets of bleachers. The landscaping project was funded entirely by citizens of Lima, with most of the actual work was also being done by Lima residents. The playground equipment project was funded by Lima taxpayers' dollars and donations from two local Lima businesses. This really demonstrates just how much Limaites value their parks, because Robb Park really would not be what it is today without these two projects. |