Smithfield Community Work Program Helps Clean Seven Points Recreation Area

The SCI Smithfield Community Work Program (CWP), led by Corrections Labor Foreman Mark Snyder, assisted the Friends of Raystown Lake at their Bike Skills Park in the Seven Points Recreation area in Hesston. The work was a collaborative effort by the DOC, US Army Corps of Engineers and the Raystown Lake Friends group. The size of the bike park in combination with the lack of community volunteers to maintain the recreation area prompted the need for DOC assistance to clear the overgrown brush and weeds from in and around the obstacle course. 

The Park Ranger staff closed the bike skills park to public use to allow the CWP to complete the work uninterrupted as quickly as possible without any potential hazards or concerns for public safety. Mr. Snyder educated public visitors about the CWP program as they arrived to the park entrance and were unable to gain access. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, Park Ranger staff and public visitors could be observed driving slowly past the site, attentive to operations.

Pictured above: Inmates working on a park. Pictured right: The park before the inmates cleaned it.