HARCOURT — Keeping the park in Harcourt a beautiful place is a calling for Kelly Blair.

In the last three years, he’s made benches out of trees he cut down himself. And he added to the visual appeal of the place by bringing in an antique wagon from his farm that he fills with flowers and greenery.

Blair recruited chain saw artist Gary Keenan to make a sculpture out of the remaining trunk of a Norway spruce tree that was cut down in the park.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Kelly Blair RECRUITED a chain saw artist to make this sculpture out of a tree trunk.

But he doesn’t limit his community efforts to the park.

For example, he recently completed pouring the cement for a new approach to the Harcourt Community Center, a solid building constructed during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration to serve originally as the gym and lunchroom for the long-gone school.

“So why am I helping out now?” he asked. “Because it is my turn and my time.”

Blair said he was inspired by Percy Wally, a retired minister and Habitat for Humanity volunteer, whose home he and his wife, Becky, purchased in Harcourt.

“Percy’s words instilled my first sense of civic responsibility, even obligation, as a new property owner in Harcourt,” he said.

He recalled that his commitment to the park began soon after he was elected to the City Council about two and a half years ago. He said the officials were talking about who wanted to be involved in what in the city, and he picked the park because it seemed like a “good fit.”

The fact that he lives across the street from the west side of the park factored into his decision. As a semi-retired farmer, he also has access to machinery needed to accomplish some of the bigger jobs.

“It doesn’t hurt to have some horsepower and hydraulics,” he said.

“Plus, I’ve got an idea about every 30 minutes,” he added.

His first project wasn’t at the park, however. It was at the city brush pile, which had spread out of its boundaries after several seasons of rainy weather that made burning the material difficult. He burned some material, then shaped and seeded the area. The result is today’s organized area that includes a mound of tree mulch, clay for fill, black dirt, fire wood and the brush pile to be burned.

Blair figures every park needs a rock, and he led the effort to get the big one that’s there now. It once sat in a road ditch about a mile and a half southwest of Harcourt. Blair said he worked with Dale Anderson, a county road foreman, to get it moved to the park.

“We all stood in the pouring rain while the operator dropped the rock in the northwest corner of the park,” Blair said. “It rolled about 270 degrees, then stood up in exactly the position I wanted it. Unbelievable luck, and no charge for moving the rock.”

Once, there was a mishap while Blair was working in the park.

“I was picking up tree limbs in the park when I snagged an overhead electric line with the boom of the backhoe,” he said. “I felt terrible until I was told that the park lights hadn’t worked in years.”

To remedy that situation, he teamed up with seven other men to put in new lights. He said the park now “glows like a full moon every night.”

Blair grew up on a Century Farm near Dayton that is now operated by his son, AJ. He has lived in Harcourt since about 2006, and he appreciates the rural tranquillity of the town.

“Harcourt is as close to living in a corn field that you can get and still pay a water bill,” he said.