Eagle Scout project improves site at Antelope Rural Center

Lucas Pearce (middle) and members of Boy Scout Troop 332 at the work site. (Staff photos)

 
By Doug Spoon, Editor

Members of Boy Scout Troop 332 worked all day Saturday to make improvements in the yard behind the Antelope Menifee Rural Center on Haun Road. The effort was the Eagle Scout Project of Lucas Pearce, who led a team of about 15 scouts in landscape improvements.

The Rural Center is a decades-old building that has been a meeting place for local organizations for years since it was donated to the non-profit Antelope-Menifee Rural Center in 1972 by pioneer rancher Chester Morrison. Once the site of community dances, it now provides meeting space for scout groups, youth sports leagues, a church, and the Menifee Valley Historical Association.

Pearce’s idea was to freshen up the outside of the building by covering the dirt back yard area with a weed barrier, gravel and decomposed granite to keep out weeds and improve the ground surface. Scouts and adult leaders also dug a trench from the yard area out to an open field to provide drainage during the rainy season and decrease the amount of mud that is tracked into the building.

“This will make the area more level and aesthetically pleasing,” Pearce said. “It will also make it ADA compatible.”

Andy Dannenberger is the scout master who supervised Pearce’s project.

“They’re working on a trench first for drainage,” Dannenberger said. “Then they’re getting ready to put fabric down and DG. Once they lay it and compact it, it’s almost as hard as concrete. Weeds don’t grow in it.”

Pearce planned the project and got materials donated, in addition to meals supplied for the scouts throughout the day. Menifee Mayor Bill Zimmerman, who is president of the Rural Center Association, also attended the event and helped out with the work.

“The Antelope Menifee Rural Center appreciates that Lucas chose our facility,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a free-use community center that 4H and scouts and many community organizations use throughout the week. To have the rear yard be landscaped in such a nice way by this troop is appreciated.”

After covering the ground with a weed barrier, scouts spread decomposed granite.

 The finished product is an improved seating and fire pit area at the Antelope Menifee Rural Center.

Part of the project was to dig a drainage trench away from the yard area.