You have seen them around town – solid looking tan benches near stops for the Wake Forest loop bus. They were built by several of the retired members of the Wake Forest Lions Club as part of the centennial for Lions Clubs International.
Larry Mengel, who headed up the informal crews building the benches, said they received enough money from Lions Club International to build five benches and they would like to build more if they can get funding.
The benches are made of a composite recycled plastic “that should last forever,” Mengel said. At first they sank a couple posts into the ground and erected the bench on the posts. But digging near the sidewalk also meant they might hit utility lines, so they decided to build 7-foot by 4-foot concrete pads. The initial idea was to ask Ready Mix Concrete to give them some concrete left over from a job, but that involved waiting for the concrete truck or have a hole in the ground for a while. “Now we make our own concrete with Sakrete,” Mengel said.
When they were building the pad and bench near the Aldi grocery store on South Main Street, one of the crew members was lying on the ground, back to the traffic, arm in the hole. A Wake EMS crew going by stopped to ask if he was all right. They were told he was “almost dead but still working.
That bench is much appreciated by the management at Walmart, which is behind Aldi’s. Mengel said in the past people would wheel their purchases from Walmart in a cart, take out the bags at the bus stop and sit on the overturned cart while waiting for the bus.
The five benches are near Aldi’s, Bruno’s restaurant and Lidl, all on South Main Street, Feggins & Feggins Funeral Service on North White Street and a car wash on Wake Union Church Road. Each pad costs about $100, Mengel said, and the benches cost $500 each. Each crew was usually seven to eight people – “so no one gets overworked” – and each bench took about six hours. The five benches have depleted their funding – “We’re just tickled we were able to get it done.” – and they do want to build more.
Mengel said he determined where to place the benches by riding the loop bus during the hours it is used most. He said he needs to ride the bus again to see where the next benches are needed.
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The Wake Forest Lions Club will provide free eye and ear screening Saturday, April 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Walmart parking lot. There will be a trailer there with five eyesight screening stations and one hearing screening station.
