Amador County – About 20 people gathered between Mission Boulevard and Pitt Street on Highway 88 mark the official naming of Bart’s Bend after local business.

The Amador County Kiwanis Club International held a brief lunchtime ceremony to mark installation of a new concrete picnic table embossed with a bronze Kiwanis medallion, and to dedicate the small roadside park as “Bart’s Bend.”

City Manager Mike Daly said Bart’s Bend was created several years ago when two wooden picnic tables were placed there by Bart Gillman, co-owner’s of Mel & Faye’s Restaurant.

“Over the years, Bart, single-handedly, mowed the area, repainted the tables and maintained a trash receptacle” at the small roadside park, where “many residents and tourists frequently used the area to rest and picnic.”

Daly said “Gillman spent about 10 or 12 years mowing and weeding” and keeping up the small park next to Jackson Creek.

Daly said: “Bart just took this project on his own. Nobody asked him to do it,” he did it “just to make this a better place.” Eventually the small park became known as Bart’s Bend. But the tables deteriorated and were removed.

Bart and Maura Gillman arrived Tuesday after a Convocation prayer by Kiwanis Lieutenant Governor Andrew Webb, and during Daly’s address.

Gillman said he was touched by the turnout, and the club’s donation. He said: “When the last wooden picnic table collapsed, I thought that was the end of Bart’s Bend. Then the Kiwanis Club bought a table that will outlast me.”

In June, a crane lifted the concrete picnic table into place. In a ceremonial program, Amador Kiwanis outgoing President Debbie Blasingame explained that “Amador County Kiwanis Club took the initiative to resurrect Bart’s Bend. We later found it was unofficially named.” The “Dedication Ceremony is to confirm the original purpose of this wayside stop for both travelers and locals and to also unveil a sign identifying this site forever as Bart’s Bend.”

Incoming President Howard Edson said they will be mounting a membership drive to add to the 18 members of Amador Kiwanis. Blasingame said that would change Tuesday, as “Bart is an honorary Kiwanis.”

Balsingame said Kiwanis was founded in 1915 to help children. The program said the “club is made up of all walks of life at every step of the career ladder. But they are unified in their belief that children and their communities benefit from the efforts of a proficient group of caring and involved volunteers.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.