The signs and gardens welcoming residents and visitors in Tellico Village will soon get a facelift.
Beth Kuberka, chief development officer of the Tellico Village Property Owners Association, said the project seeks to bring the gardens up to date for a better first impression.
“The gardens are over 30 years old from the original developer and the signs have just reached their useful life,” Kuberka said. “A lot of them are rotten and are really just being held together by the layers and layers and layers of paint, and we’ve repaired them so many times. We decided just to go through and redo the signs.”
The Tellico Village Garden Club has maintained the gardens for years with only occasional assistance from the POA. The signs were repainted every six to seven years as colors began to fade and rotten wood was replaced as needed.
Kuberka said all street and stop signs and poles in the community were replaced first over a six-year span.
The new neighborhood signs are made of a foam-type material that will not rot, although some color fading is expected during the eight-year lifespan because of direct sunlight. The bottom will be covered in a stack stone, which has a life expectancy of more than 20 years, she said.
Kuberka said the original goal was to outsource the project. However, the POA didn’t get three competitive bidders and the bids received were double the anticipated cost.
In collaboration with public works and the garden club, the POA decided to tackle the project in-house with a budget of $90,000. The exact final cost of the project is unknown, but Kuberka is confident it was be completed under budget.
While working with garden captains for the various locations, Kuberka said project leaders realized a lack of symmetry among the gardens. While the POA doesn’t want the gardens identical, the desire was to have similar elements, she said.
Donna Olson, one of the lead garden captains and president of the garden club, and Rita Koridek worked with garden captains for a new design. The design was then brought back to the POA for final touches.
“We started with six gardens and that will be a winter project through the spring to get in the plantings, get the new signs installed, new lighting,” she said. “We’ve kind of changed the shape of some of the gardens. They had just gotten too big. We wanted to make them a little bit more manageable moving forward, and then next year we’ll finish the remaining six gardens on Highway 444, which are main neighborhood entrances. Then the following year we’ll work on, I call sub-gardens, but it’s the gardens within the neighborhoods.”
The project has begun in the Mialaquo neighborhood. Next will come the Chatugas, Coyatees and the Yacht Club.
The design of the new signs is more modern with a hint of rustic charm.
Over the winter, the bases for the signs will be built and new signs installed. New evergreens and seasonal bushes will be planted when the weather improves and irrigation systems will be turned back on.
Kuberka said the goal was to use foliage that would last longer, require less maintenance and not become overgrown. Some color will be injected at intervals throughout the year.
“I just think the property owners will have … pride,” Kuberka said. “When everything looks polished and clean and well put together, I think it just gives you a sense of pride in your neighborhood and in your community, and I think for outsiders the same.”
