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Mellissa Fuller is this year’s Wyoming County Schools Service Person of the Year.
Photos courtesy of Don Morgan
With American Rescue Plan funding, Oceana’s Gilliland Park pool has been repainted and repaired in addition to improvements to the bathhouse and other facilities. Among the improvements to Gilliland Park is a new picnic shed. Additionally, the tennis and basketball courts have been resurfaced. A new paved walking trail has also been added.
Photos courtesy of Don Morgan
With American Rescue Plan funding, Oceana’s Gilliland Park pool has been repainted and repaired in addition to improvements to the bathhouse and other facilities. Among the improvements to Gilliland Park is a new picnic shed. Additionally, the tennis and basketball courts have been resurfaced. A new paved walking trail has also been added.
Improvements to Gilliland Park in Oceana are just about complete, according to Councilman Don Morgan.
More than $60,000 has been spent for the improvements and funded with American Rescue Plan monies.
American Rescue Plan funding is federal money provided in response to the economic downturn created by the Covid-19 pandemic. County and municipal governments must use the federal monies within a certain time frame to fund infrastructure projects.
The tennis and basketball courts have been resurfaced.
A new walking trail has been paved.
Additionally, the old water plant building has been razed to provide space for more picnic tables, according to Jim Cook, town recorder.
A new metal picnic shed, complete with a concrete pad, has been erected.
Also, the pool has been repainted and repaired.
New filters will also be installed as soon as they are delivered, Cook said.
“Those filters that we’re replacing are the original filters (from 1959),” Cook noted. “Those things are really expensive.”
The restrooms inside the bathhouse are also being renovated as well, Cook noted.
“The park has needed to be improved for years, but the town has never had the kind of money we knew it would take to make the improvements,” Cook explained in an earlier interview.
“So when this American Rescue money came down, that’s the first thing we (town officials) said, ‘Let’s get the park’.
“We also wanted to make the park more handicap-accessible.”
Gilliland Park began as Laurel Park Playground in 1952, when the Oceana Woman’s Club installed picnic tables and barbecue pits close to where the water plant building stood.
In 1954, in conjunction with the county Board of Education, the Oceana Rotary Club added to the park development on the property behind Oceana Grade School No. 2 (now Berlin McKinney Elementary). With assistance from other civic organizations and area businesses, two tennis courts were constructed at a cost of $4,000, along with two shuffleboard courts, horseshoe pits, myriad playground equipment, picnic tables, outdoor fireplaces, and drinking fountains.
With the area’s population continuing to increase, officials continued to discuss the possibility of adding a pool to complete the town’s growing recreational offerings.
Those plans began in earnest when, on July 7, 1959 the Laurel Park Swimming Pool Committee was appointed by Oceana Mayor Jim Roberts and approved by the council. Robert Williams was named committee president; Dr. E.G. Shannon, vice president; Ray Neal, secretary; Ivan Daniels, assistant secretary; Hugh Miller, treasurer; Les Lively, assistant treasurer, and local attorney Fred Lokant served as legal advisor. The board of directors included Lloyd Blackburn, Herman Hopkins, Hobert Drake, Drewey Mitchell, Junior Laxton, Tom Smith, and J.D. Cook.
Groundbreaking ceremonies were conducted Aug. 28, 1959 and National Swimming Pool Equipment Company of Florence, Ala., was chosen to construct the 100 x 45 foot pool at a cost of $75,000, according to a 1959 Beckley Post-Herald article.
The diving well was designed to be 35 x 35 feet and the pool had a 210,000-gallon capacity.
The entire pool project also included a 100 x 30 foot bathhouse complete with modern changing areas and restrooms, a concession area, and a 25 x 40 foot observation and lounging pavilion in addition to a 30 x 50 foot wading pool, with a depth of 9 to 15 inches, for younger children.
The town had trouble meeting the construction costs and, as a result, civic groups, area businesses, and individuals contributed to the cause.
The pool committee also sold family pool passes for the 1960 season to help offset the costs.
In the end, Frank Laxton Jr., who was a committee member at the time, donated $10,000 so the pool could be completed and open as scheduled.
Grand opening ceremonies for the Laurel Park Swimming Pool were conducted May 28, 1960. In addition to Mayor Roberts, the guest speakers included Laxton, Raymond Eye of Beckley, Pineville Mayor Vaughn Stewart, county Schools Superintendent Jesse Morgan, and Judge R.D. Bailey of Pineville.
Gene Gilliland (1924-2020) was named general park and pool supervisor the same year. Gilliland and his wife, Lolita, supervised the park and pool for more than half-a-century. After her death in 2005, he continued to work at the park until he was 90 years of age.
Gilliland taught chemistry, physics, and math at Oceana High School for more than three decades while coaching basketball, football, and track. He was affectionally known as “Coach” to his students, players, and the community.
At the suggestion of Jesse Womack, one of Gilliland’s former students, the town council renamed the park in the couple’s honor in 1999.
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