FRANKLIN
Volunteers and city employees completed the renovation of the Barrett’s Landing boat ramp area early Thursday morning.

Local members of Lowe’s Heroes Project teamed with the City of Franklin to redo the boat ramps at Barrett’s Landing, replacing the wood with a composite material designed to resist water damage. They also repainted the railings along the boardwalk, and redesigned the landscaping.

The Heroes Project, a community outreach program sponsored by the Lowe’s corporation, encourages Lowe’s employees to form teams of volunteers once a year to complete community service.

“I can’t say enough about the support we’ve gotten from the community for this project,” said Randy Martin, city manager. “Not just from Lowe’s, but also from community members that have provided meals to the volunteers. It’s been a great success and it’s a big improvement visually.”

“We feel it was a total success,” Adam Smith, human resources manager at Lowe’s. “It’s a win for us, and a win for the city of Franklin.”

Martin stated that this wraps up the first phase of planned improvements to Barrett’s Landing.

“We’ve discussed, with no commitment from the people at Lowe’s, that the next project would be replacing all the wood on the boardwalk with the same composite material as the boat ramps,” he said.

“Nothing is set in stone yet,” Smith agreed. “But I can’t imagine we wouldn’t return to Barrett’s Landing next year. We want to continue to do community work close to home, and Barrett’s Landing is such a beautiful piece of property to help improve.”

Martin also noted that the city plans to add more trash receptacles to the area, using some grant funding awarded for litter control purposes, and to continue landscaping until the fall in order to plant some flowers and shrubbery that require moderate temperatures.

“We’re looking into planting some ground cover on the banks in order to prevent some erosion issues we’re having,” he said.

The city would also like to add permanent lighting to the gazebo at Barrett’s Landing, to make it easier to use the facility after dark for approved events, such as We Be Jammin’.

Finally, Martin noted that the city will continue to look into improving the boat docks and ramps to make them more boater friendly, and will investigate how to improve river access for kayaks and canoes.

“Kayaking is on the rise and we need to make sure that those who doing non-motorized boaters have a safe place to enter the water,” he said.