By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
At the Jan. 20 Salisbury City Council meeting, the Parks and Recreation Department recognized Maggie Blackwell and Ty Cobb Jr. for their contributions.
Blackwell was the Fulton Heights neighborhood leader who drove efforts to build Centennial Park.
Blackwell persuaded a property owner to dedicate his land for the neighborhood park, then committed to raising the private funds toward the park’s creation in exchange for the city’s building and maintaining it.
Blackwell managed the fundraising, submitted grant proposals, organized park planning days and formed a children’s committee to help in designing the play structures.
More than $40,000 was raised by the neighborhood, and the park opened in 2007.
The Parks and Recreation Department nominated Blackwell for a National Recreation and Parks Association humanitarian award.She did not win that honor, “but she’s a huge humanitarian in our books,” said Elaney Hasselmann, marketing and community relations manager for Parks and Recreation.
Blackwell thanked the council for its ‘”awesome support” of the Fulton Heights neighborhood through the years. She said residents of Fulton Heights should be recognized, not her.
The Parks and Recreation Department also highlighted the 68-year-old Cobb’s contributions as a volunteer lifeguard at Lincoln Park Pool this past summer.
Cobb, a Purple Heart recipient and veteran of the Korean Conflict and Vietnam War, recertified himself as a lifeguard two years ago. He said he has learned he is not the oldest lifeguard in the state but is the oldest volunteer lifeguard.
Cobb said he volunteered at Lincoln Park Pool because he had heard that kids were having to wait outside because enough lifeguards weren’t on hand to supervise.