PARIS -- Hundreds of volunteers had a hand in making a permanent home for the Eiffel Tower replica that is to be dedicated today in the Logan County town of Paris.
Organizers said about 5,000 man-hours of volunteer work over the past five months went into building a park at the southwest corner of the town square to display the 18-foot-tall replica. A ceremony is set for 5 p.m. today to dedicate the tower park and recognize the people involved with its development.
"It's really impressive," Mayor Daniel Rogers said. "I'm just excited about our city and the volunteerism. It's just wonderful how all this has come together."
The owners of the lot that became the park -- Paris native Steve Brown and his wife, Jennifer, now of Northwest Arkansas -- agreed to lease the lot to the city for $1 a year for five years with an option to buy, said Lee Lane, a project organizer.
Area businesses donated or sold at cost the materials -- concrete, brick, stone and sod -- used to build the park and often donated their labor, project foreman Gene Davis said.
One day during the project, three business owners with dump trucks and backhoes hauled in 15 loads of dirt to level off the lot, Davis said. Normally, that would have cost $3,500 to $4,000.
"Nobody charged us a dime," he said.
The community's desire to make the park attractive has made volunteering fashionable in Paris.
"It was reported I was hired," project architect Jo Minden said. "I told Gene I got my feelings hurt because I wanted to volunteer, too."
Davis said an electrician from Scranton worked half a day installing lighting in the tower. The electrician told him that since others were volunteering their time, so would he.
The tower is covered in the same type of paint and in the same color as the original in France, said Ed Williams, owner of Ed Williams Body Shop in Paris, who was asked to paint the replica.
Before he began the work, Williams did some research on the Internet to determine what color to paint it. He found that the company that provides the paint for the French tower is Jotun Paints Inc., based in Norway.
After contacting the company's United States representative about the project, Williams said he was referred to Jotun's only American plant, in Belle Chasse, La., just outside New Orleans.
Williams emailed the office in Louisiana, describing the project and inquiring about the color of paint the company provided for the Eiffel Tower in France. He also sent along a picture of the Arkansas tower. Within 15 minutes, he received a reply with the information for which he asked.
And, without asking, the company sent him 5 gallons of primer and 2 gallons each of the three shades of light bronze paint it provides for the French tower. The company explained that the tower in France is painted in lighter shades as it rises to its 1,063-foot height to accent the skyline.
"It's going to be so popular," Williams said of the replica. "We're really proud of it."
The Arkansas tower already appears to be popular and a benefit to area tourism. Rogers said people have been stopping to have their pictures taken in front of it. He thinks it's going to be a favorite spot for weddings.
"The guys have been amazed at the number of out-of-towners that come and stop and get their pictures made, even in the process of construction," Lane said.
Minden said she also noticed that people have been tossing pennies into the fountain pool that surrounds the tower.
The tower replica was donated to the city in 2012 by Don Eubanks, the former pastor at Paris United Methodist Church. He spotted the tower at Ironman Fabrication in Fayetteville, where he moved with his wife in 2010, and bought it from creator David Davidian.
It sat on area resident John Flanagan's property on the eastern edge of Paris for more than a year while a permanent location for it was sought.
Much of the ground at the tower park, which measures 84-by-90 feet, is covered by a large slab of concrete, and there is a concrete-and-brick stage at the western end. In the center is a pool made of brick and capped with stone slabs. Rising from the center of the pool is a brick pedestal, on which sits the tower with a fountain at its center. Lights that change colors have been installed to illuminate the fountain at night.
A $9,000 pump, filtration and chlorination system was installed at cost, Davis said, the single largest expense of the project.
Around the park, stone from area companies has been used for retaining walls and for benches on the perimeter. Wrought-iron tables and chairs have been placed around the fountain, and sod has been laid along the park's edges.
Some work still remains, Lane said. Shrubs and flowers around the edge of the park will be planted in the spring. And plans are being made to paint a mural on the large brick wall on the north end of the park with an Eiffel Tower motif and Mount Magazine -- the state's tallest point, which is south of Paris -- in the background.
Lane said the motif will be "very French, because we're going to make this sort of our French corner."
About $35,000 has been spent on the park, Lane said. The city donated $15,000, and $10,000 came from state general improvement funds acquired by District 74 state Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris. Also, $6,000 was contributed by the Paris Chamber of Commerce, and there have been some private donations.
Lane said the money raised covered about half of what the project would have cost without the volunteers and donations of equipment and skills.
"It's been absolutely a community effort," Lane said. "It's amazing. I'm overwhelmed."
Metro on 11/23/2014