Community

Uncle Frank’s nephew to get new concession stand: Windmill Park upgrades continue

FAIRMONT - Randy Hines caught himself dabbing at his eyes Wednesday morning at Windmill Park.

That's because he wasn't counting on getting called out, in a good way, by Fairmont Mayor Anne Bolyard and Fairmont City Manager Travis Blosser.

Both officials praised him publicly, you see.

The occasion on the 85-degree morning was the groundbreaking for a new $800,000 concession stand at the park, a 20-acre expanse off Ogden Avenue that was underutilized for generations.

Underutilized, because the confines of Ogden and Windmill are in a traditional Black neighborhood in the Marion County city.

And traditional Black neighborhoods, in Fairmont and elsewhere through most of the 20th century, were disenfranchised - economically, socially - due to the aforementioned matters of race.

"Fairmont wasn't immune to that history," Blosser said. "We shouldn't pretend it didn't happen - but we can be damned sure we don't perpetuate it."

Two years ago, the city began talking with the residents along Ogden and near the park. Impromptu focus groups actually happened at the pavilions there.

Money was allocated for new playground fixtures.

Lighted pickleball courts went in.

Windmill's football field, named in honor of Hines' uncle, Frank Hines, who was legend in the neighborhood for his advocacy of youth sports and after-school enrichment programs, got new sod also.

The man universally known as "Uncle Frank" had long provided solid ground for young people coming up in households where it wasn't always easy.

In fact, Randy Hines added, Frank Hines was still organizing right up until his death in 2013 at the age of 68.

"A lot of kids around here came from single-parent families and their moms worked," he said.

"Uncle Frank would make sure they got to Pop Warner practices and football games and all the other stuff they needed to get to."

His nephew, who took an early retirement after the closure of the Novelis plant on Speedway Avenue last year, wasn't tilting at Windmills when he made himself a fixture at the park for a similar mission.

In the summer, and right up until the time the first snow is in the air after autumn and the leaves are gone, he gets there at 8:30 in the morning, goes home for lunch - then doesn't leave again until dusk.

He schedules youth baseball games and other activities while serving as Windmill's goodwill emissary as it were.

Oh, yeah: And he works the concession stand, too.

Hines can't wait for the new one.

"Hey, we're going big-time," he said.

"We're getting refrigerators, freezers, a slurpee machine, popcorn machine. We're expanding our menu, and we're actually gonna have room in there to work."

"Work" was the watchword at the park Wednesday.

While officials, residents and others gathered, the sound of lawnmowers wafted over to share sonic space with both the buzz of the public address microphone and the whomp of dirt in shovels for the ceremonial groundbreaking.

The city, Blosser said, hasn't stopped working since those first conversations at the park two years ago.

An initial outlay of $184,000 in American Rescue Plan Act monies, specifically designated for Windmill Park, has been parlayed into a $1.2 investment there, with the concession stand being the latest addition.

Even if, as Mayor Bolyard said, Windmill Park isn't about concession stands.

"Windmill Park is about community," she said. "People come out and share laughter and build memories."

Black people and white people, too, Hines said.

"I just really appreciate what the city is doing," he continued. "I'm seeing whole families out here now."

And a preponderance of pickleball players, also.

"We had 27 cars in this lot yesterday morning. The courts were full. I know Uncle Frank's smiling down and saying, 'See? What'd I tell ya?'"