Create Buckhannon’s latest projects include a ‘Buckhannon’ fence, bright flowers and ‘Twelfth Night’ in Jawbone

Monica Zalaznik
July 4, 2021

BUCKHANNON – Create Buckhannon recently brainstormed several potential beautification and arts-related projects around the City of Buckhannon.

President of Create Buckhannon CJ Rylands brought up three projects during the June 24 Create Buckhannon meeting. Including installing a new ‘Buckhannon’ fence next to Wilson Martino Dental; planting flowers and trees at the median of Routes 20 and 33; and inviting an acting troupe to perform a Shakespeare play in Jawbone Park.

Rylands said the fence will need to be discussed with the dentist’s office before it can be approved.

“The mayor has this information, and he is working to collaborate with them, but will go behind the pocket park, with the benches, right up against the building,” Rylands said. “It will be six foot in the middle and 10 foot on the ends because it mirrors this roofline, and it might not be wood, but it may be some other authentic neutral background.”

“I like the idea of rusty metal barn roofing,” he continued. “The ‘Buckhannon’ part will be cut out of two pieces of three-quarter plywood, to be an inch-and-a-half thick and then wrapped in metal.”

Rylands said the spot could become a great location to take pictures.

“I think it’s like an Instagram moment – it’s art, it’s a functional fence to create a backdrop and it says something positive about our community,” he said.

The new benches installed next to Wilson Martino Dental.

Create Buckhannon is also facilitating a plan to plant several flowers and trees in the median near the Route 20/Route 33 interchange.

“We would like to add dogwood or redbud – something that doesn’t get much over 15 or 20 feet high,” Rylands said. “We were also thing of maybe bunches of forsythia or burning bush or something colorful, so we have we have something there besides grass, dirt and rock.”

A drawing showing Route 20, Route 33 and the green space where the potential trees and flowers would be planted.

Create Buckhannon also voted to invite a theater troupe to perform Shakespeare in the park, at Jawbone Park, July 20 at 7 p.m., free to the public, and Buckhannon City Council approved the usage of the Park at its July 1 meeting.

The ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ event is slated for 7 p.m. Saturday, July 10 and will feature The Rustic Mechanicals, West Virginia’s only touring professional Shakespeare Troupe and The Vintage Theatre Company, LLC performing William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at Jawbone Park.

“It’s a Shakespeare play that’s outdoors in the park, and Jason Young and the Vintage Theatre Group from Bridgeport, and there are some students attending Wesleyan that are participating in the cast,” Rylands said. “Create Buckhannon paid to have the troupe in the park – that’s part of our intention is to bring people together in the community and to utilize our public spaces and expose folks to the arts. Maybe Festival Fridays isn’t for everyone, but they would love Shakespeare, so we’re trying a diverse approach to connecting folks in our community.”