Plywood painted by local Rotarians is installed by 1-800 Board-Up on the former apartment building at the Hawthorne Centre.
Volunteers recently picked up paintbrushes to help improve the look of several dilapidated properties in town.
The Galesburg Sunrise Rotary Club recently painted 20 plywood sheets that were later cut and mounted to the blighted properties at the Hawthorne Center by the city’s board-up contractor, Werner Restoration.
The group made use of the former Ferris Moving and Storage building, which is located at 465 Mulberry Street and now owned by the city, to do the painting.
“Projects like this one display the commitment of Rotarians to our community,” says Sunrise Rotary President Chris Hroziencik. “It is great to see such an investment into this wonderful group effort.”
Working with the city’s Community Development Department and 1-800 Board-Up, Rotarians painted the plywood for local board-ups to enhance the aesthetics of the vacant, run-down, or fire-damaged properties.
There are many structures in the city that have required board-up in recent years and the look and service life of unpainted plywood and oriented strand board quickly becomes a blight in city neighborhoods.
“We appreciate the time, effort, and coordination of all entities involved in this community beautification project,” said Community Development Director Steve Gugliotta. “Painting the plywood a color that blends into the building not only makes it more aesthetically pleasing for the neighborhood, but it will not broadcast that the building is vacant and/or abandoned.”
Paints were supplied from local stores for the project, purchased at a discount because they were mistinted.
