By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Pembroke wins grant for new playground equipment
Pembroke playground grant
Joined by other city officials and local State Farm representatives, Pembroke City Councilwoman Tiffany Walraven and Downtown Development Authority of Pembroke Director Sharroll Fanslau hold a ceremonial check for the $25,000 State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant the city received toward a new community playground. - photo by Photo provided.
By Paul Floeckher
Updated: Jun 17, 2015, 5:44 PM
Published: Jun 17, 2015, 5:48 PM

The small city of Pembroke got a big response from the community to receive a grant toward new playground equipment.

Pembroke is one of 40 winners nationwide of $25,000 grants through State Farm insurance company’s Neighborhood Assist program. City officials and local State Farm representatives had a ceremonial check presentation Tuesday at the city’s recreation area on Lanier Street, where the playground will be erected once the remainder of the funding is raised.

The 40 winners were determined by online voting. Pembroke’s playground project garnered 86,184 votes during the 20-day voting period.

“I was astonished when I saw the numbers,” Pembroke City Councilwoman Tiffany Walraven said. “It was very exciting, very humbling to see that many people supported our project.”

With a population of approximately 2,600 people, Pembroke is the smallest community among this year’s 40 grant winners. The largest is New York City.

“Despite our size, when people work together for a cause, anything is possible,” Walraven said. “I am honored that a community of our size will receive such a large grant to help with our playground project. This is a big win for the children and families of Pembroke.”

Pembroke has received about $15,000 from community and corporate donors toward the approximately $60,000 cost of the project, according to city officials. The addition of the $25,000 State Farm grant puts the city two-thirds toward the goal.

“We’re very relieved because that takes a load off where we’re going to get the money,” Pembroke Recreation Director Mandy Toole said.

The new playground is not a budgeted item and is being funded entirely by contributions. The city is reaching out to corporate donors to raise the remaining $20,000.

“Now, it’s time to keep working,” Toole said.

Individuals who would like to donate can do so at City Hall, Walraven said. Also, the city has set up an account on the fundraising site GoFundMe.com, at www.gofundme.com/x4j27k.

“We’ve had a lot of people ask how they can donate personally,” Walraven said.

Once all the money has been raised, the playground equipment can be in use approximately 45 days after it’s ordered, Toole said — about 30 days for shipping, followed by roughly 15 more to erect it.

The city hopes that will happen in the next three to six months, according to Walraven. She acknowledged that isn’t much time, but she is positive the community will come through again.

“I am confident that we will be able to raise this money quickly and break ground on the project soon,” Walraven said.

For years, Pembroke had a playground on Lanier Street behind the J. Dixie Harn Community Center. However, the city’s only public playground was shut down last year and eventually dismantled after safety concerns arose about the aging equipment that was beyond repair.

The new playground will be erected on the same spot where the old one stood — between the city’s swimming pool, softball field and skate park. The playground the city plans to purchase will be suitable for children ages 5-12 and have an expected usage of at least 15 years, according to Toole.

Two of this year’s 40 Neighborhood Assist grant recipients are in Georgia, and they are neighboring communities. Georgia’s other winner is Effingham County’s Backpack Buddies program, which provides food for at-risk children when school meals are not available.

“The record number of people who participated and voted in this year's program demonstrates the passion of the Coastal Empire to help with community issues,” said Sarah Clem, a public-affairs specialist for State Farm. “We look forward to seeing the change that will happen in these two Georgia communities because of the Neighborhood Assist grants.”

Sign up for our E-Newsletters
Later yall, its been fun
Placeholder Image
Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

Latest Obituaries