Did you know that Greensburg’s parks and recreation department has added a splash pad, pedestrian and bike trails, and even a disc golf course? We chat with Bob Barker to find out how we got our coveted Youth Sports Complex and how Rebekah park has expanded in recent years. Dennis Burn walks us through the ins and outs of creating a disc golf course and Hans Schreiber, owner of Carriage on the Square Smokehouse, shows us how he’s busy making all of our smoked meat dreams come true. Lastly, Lori Durbin fills us in on the many book clubs available at the Decatur County Public Library with topics ranging from a historical book and film club to toddler time to knitting night.
Andrew:
Welcome to Beyond the Tree Tower: Stories From Decatur County, Indiana. I'm your host, Andrew. We're listening to the South Decatur high school pep band performing under the direction of Celia Colter.
Andrew:
On this episode of Beyond the Tree Tower, we talk parks and rec with park superintendent, Bob Barker.
Bob Barker:
Well, when we started, I started out with basically five parks. We expanded all over the county, probably 20 or more.
Andrew:
We also hear from Hans at Carriage on the Square Smokehouse.
Hans Schreiber:
When we got Gcom's 30th anniversary luncheon, that was for over 900 people. That one meant a lot to me.
Andrew:
And we check in with the Greensburg Decatur County public library.
Lori Durbin:
We have our historical book and film club. That is a group of people who meet to discuss historical books or films.
Andrew:
We'll even take a sneak peek at episode five of the podcast. All this, and more is Beyond the Tree Tower.
Andrew:
On the very Western edge of Greensburg, right where state road 46 breaks off from the bypass, you'll find Greensburg's largest and most used recreational space.
Andrew:
The Decatur County fairgrounds, the Greensburg country club golf course, Parkside Lanes bowling alley, Parkside sweet shop and miniature golf are all there. Decatur County parks and rec has the massive Decatur County Park often called the City Park by locals and the Allen Memorial pool in the location as well. But lately the feature that has most consistently brought people to this edge of town is the Decatur County Youth Sports Complex. The complex features eight well-kept baseball and softball diamonds, five with high quality lighting. There's a concession and restroom building, shelter houses, playground equipment. To learn more, I spoke with the Decatur County Park's superintendent.
Bob Barker:
Bob Barker, superintendent of parks and recreation.
Andrew:
Bob told me the backstory of how this community asset came to be.
Bob Barker:
Well, this all started probably in the ... Oh, 1989, 1990 when I kind of threw a vision to the park board that I wanted to combine the girls and the boys into one complex. I had them spread out all over town, North Park and then we had Shriver park for the girls and the women's league and so we bought the land. We started here. It took 10 years to get it off the ground. It opened in May, 2000. Big accomplishment for the community this size. So the boys and the girls are all in one place.
Andrew:
With so many high quality ball fields so centrally located, Greensburg has become a natural choice to host summer tournamentS.
Bob Barker:
We're working with tourism and we're trying to get more tournaments that bring more revenue, more business, more money to the area and that's a big thing. We're working with the boys' and the girls' organizations. We do have more tournaments coming next year.
Andrew:
If the Decatur County Youth Sports Complex exists because of Bob Barker, it's no surprise. He's had his hand in almost every Decatur County Park development for the last five decades.
Andrew:
How long have you been superintendent of parks and rec?
Bob Barker:
Going on 47 years. We're kind of unique park and rec department. We're a joint appointments by the city and the county. So we got the whole county, and this department started out probably in 1969. I come on in 1973 and we've come a long way. I remember coming down here middle of the night and have to stoke coal.
Andrew:
I spoke with Bob in his office in the park's department building, known to locals as The Armory. The decades old building contains a gymnasium and has been an important public space in the community for ages.
Bob Barker:
But that was our heat source and I wasn't the only one who shoveled it. But on the weekends the fire would go out and you had to keep the building going. So one of the first projects I did was renovate this floor in here and bring it back to life. This old floor in here, really early, like '74, '75. That was one of the ... brought people back down here because they said, "Oh, look at this floor, look at the facility now."
Andrew:
The Decatur County Park's system has grown under his watch.
Bob Barker:
When we started, I started out with basically five parks. We've expanded all over the county, probably 20 or more. We've got a lot of mini parks throughout the county that I've established when all the schools in the county shut down and consolidated and we took over and leased a lot of the township grounds and put park playgrounds in there and a little mini park. We bought land throughout the county in different little small towns, so we got a little mini parks and bigger parks throughout the county. We've picked up bigger parks like Rebekah Park.
Andrew:
In recent years, some of the longterm projects parks and rec has been working on have started to come together. Most of those results have been seen at Rebekah Park on the city's eastern edge.
Bob Barker:
The big park coming right now is the Rebekah Park. We bought that land, got the county to commit it to buy that land and we leased it years ago from the Oddfellows-Rebekah organization and then it come up for sale and I convinced the commissioners that this is something we don't need to let go back to the private sector and we need to keep this for a public park on this end of town. The stellar committee was a big influence on this. When we released the land, we put some small stuff out there, but we really didn't want to commit to bigger stuff and when the stellar committee was formed, this is one of the earmark, they wanted a dog park. They wanted a splash park and little by little we got commitments through tourism and to other private organizations and banks and Delta was a big part in the splash pad.
Philip Diewert:
One of the things I'm most excited about that we've been able to do since I started here is the splash pad out at Rebekah Park.
Bob Barker:
Here's tourism director, Philip Diewert.
Philip Diewert:
That has just been such an awesome addition to the community. I drive past there several times a day and just throughout the summer, every time I went past it, just kids running and laughing, splashing, which is awesome for the kids, but also for parents, grandparents, whoever's out there. It's a place for people to gather, just talk, visit. You'll relax and watch your kids play in a safe place. The next one we're working on right now is the amphitheater, which is going to also be out at Rebekah Park.
Bob Barker:
And we've got an amphitheater in the mix now and some small time entertainment coming when we get that built.
Andrew:
In addition to those improvements, there's also a cross town pedestrian and bike trail that begins in Rebekah Park.
Bob Barker:
That's part of the city's ... We had a committee for that and it's still functioning. We're trying to want to expand on that.
Andrew:
With 47 years on the job and so many visible, quantifiable changes, I asked Bob to reflect a little bit.
Bob Barker:
My first month here that ... I couldn't sleep for the first month because I had all this stuff going through my head that I wanted to try to do and I wanted to do it right away and I couldn't do it right away and that part of the job that I just couldn't make things happen quick enough really bugged me. But throughout time I kind of slowed down a little bit, took it in phases. I'm delighted with what's been accomplished. When I started here, getting things done in the community that I would like to have seen done when I was young, a young boy in the Greensburg area. When I was young and for families here and I still wanted to do more, that's why I'm still kind of working. The big thing I wanted to try to push on is the park playground splash pad at the Alamo or a pool. The big thing would probably be a community building of some type down the road.
Bob Barker:
A lot of my employees that's still here, some of them have been here 30 years, 27 years, and it makes it a lot easier. Theresa sitting out there has been a big asset and we're all nearing retirement age. I'm a little further along than she is, but she's kind of got it in the back of her mind, I think. Oh, another year or so maybe. Maybe. I don't know.
Andrew:
But Bob's not going anywhere just yet. In fact, he wants to hear from you.
Bob Barker:
402 East North street or give us a call, stop in, make an appointment. Or we can sit and talk or they're always welcome to come to the park board. Public's always welcome. They just need to get on the agenda and give me some kind of agenda, what we're going to be talking about. We keep plugging along and be patient with a lot of things. I'm limited on help, but if you got a project, you see something wrong, speak up and let's set a goal and set a set some way that we can move towards getting that accomplished. I'll never say no to any project. If I can get support and community effort and their support, but I can't do it alone.
Bob Barker:
But in all part, it's been a job that I've liked for many years. That's why I'm still here.
Andrew:
The Decatur County Youth Sports Complex is located at 245 South County road, 200 West. You can find out more information about all of Decatur County Park at decaturcountyparksandrecreation.com. A very big thank you to Bob for taking the time to talk to me.
Andrew:
Another parks upgrade that we did not talk about is happening out at the Decatur County Park by the fairgrounds. By early summer you will be hearing this sound. That's the sound of a disc golf disc falling into a disc golf basket. Professional course designer Dennis Burn designed the course. I traveled around the Decatur County Park grounds with him during the early planning stages of the course.
Dennis Burn:
So we've got some area here. We're out on the island and we got some stuff down there and that's all part of the park.
Andrew:
Yep.
Dennis Burn:
Let's go.
Andrew:
Okay.
Dennis Burn:
Daylight's burning.
Andrew:
Yeah, that's right.
Dennis Burn:
I think in that area over that we first were in and went down towards the golf course and around on the side, the north side there that wraps around that bridge end a little bit, if you did that just in that, at a recreational course, you're probably looking at enough area and that's always what I'm looking for when I design a course, is what's the primary features that if I was the property owner and I brought a guest to my property and I wanted to show it off, what would I display to them? And in a safe manner you. That's always got to be the number one deal, especially with any kind of design for a recreational activity in the park. Safety's got to be number one.
Dennis Burn:
After that, what's cool, what's neat and how do I best do that? It gets a little narrow down there. I noticed that one part where the parking lot's right there, you could have a path going down there. Yes, if you've got a way to get around to that end down there and then maybe do one hole and do it that way and put eight holes otherwise. I think it would probably involve just looking at a little bit of a walk, which you're always trying to limit players. Rule of thumb is gee, if a standard hole is 300 feet long and I just walked 300 feet, how come I wasn't playing a hole? Have a little bit of a walk and go across the island. If the restrooms are up there, you've got to get the course near those restrooms at some point because you're going to have people playing all winter long. You put up concrete tee pads, more recreational course, people will play all winter long.
Andrew:
You can expect to see disc golf baskets going in at the park sometime this spring with the full nine hole course ready for play by early summer.
Andrew:
After all that recreation, I'm sure we're all getting a little hungry. I went to what is possibly the best barbecue in Southeastern Indiana, Carriage on the Square Smokehouse. I spoke with Hans, the owner. He talked about his backstory, the location and, of course, the food.
Hans Schreiber:
I actually went to culinary school back in 2004 and I attended Florida Culinary down in West Palm beach, Florida and I was down there for a little over a year and ended up coming back to Indianapolis back home and I was very fortunate to get a job at Crystal Catering, worked with several great chefs. My goal was always to have my own restaurant. When I went to culinary school I didn't know what that was going to be and I didn't know when it was going to be. As far as getting into smoked foods, I mean even when I was a little kid, that's one place we always stopped on vacations, was just random little barbecue places and a lot of it was just trial and error. I mean, I cooked or I smoked a lot for buddies, bachelor parties, fantasy football, draft days and just parties in general.
Hans Schreiber:
So I got a lot of, I guess, the experimental stages doing that and trying to pinpoint and figure out where I was going to go with it. We take it a day at a time. We got a lot of people that really care about us, that love us. There's a lot of people in Greensburg that show a lot of support for us.
Customer 1:
Yeah, I love coming here. It's delicious.
Andrew:
What'd you order?
Customer 1:
I got the pulled pork.
Hans Schreiber:
Google and Yelp and Trip Advisor. That's really got people off the interstate, off of 74 there since we're right in between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. That's been a great tool for us as well. I really didn't want to start in Indy, so I started looking in Shelbyville, Franklin, Indiana, but the first building I looked at was this one here and my mom's from Greensburg.
Hans Schreiber:
I have family here in Greensburg, so I'm familiar with the city, but it just fit. I think I was at the right place at the right time. I liked being on the square. I liked the work that Brian Robbins did and Mainstreet Greensburg at the time did with the nice brick walk, the new light fixtures out front, the shrubbery. I just liked how Broadway looked. When we got Gcom's 30th anniversary, when we got their luncheon, that was for over 900 people. That one meant a lot to me. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that day.
Customer 2:
I had the smoked brisket.
Andrew:
Okay. Do you come here regularly?
Customer 2:
Pretty often, I guess.
Hans Schreiber:
About seven or eight different items, but there's 50 different ways to make those items and that way we can keep up product moving and to go back to it, keep things fresh. We started doing the smokehouse club wrap. That's really caught on. That's been a big favorite, and here recently we started doing the carriage bowls.
Customer 3:
The Wobbling Carriage I think is what it's called.
Hans Schreiber:
Where we have a burrito bowl, a barbecue bowl, a vegetarian bowl. So those have really come on strong here in the last month.
Customer 3:
It's a baked potato and it has pulled pork on it and their sauces and stuff. It's really good. I usually get the brisket nachos, which are amazing. They're really good.
Hans Schreiber:
That's one thing everybody always says when they come to the door. They can make the smell the smoke as they come in, and I don't smell it anymore. But a lot of people still tell me about it so I guess it's still there.
Andrew:
Thank you, Hans. Carriage on the Square Smokehouse is located on the West side of the square at 117 North Broadway. You can find them on Facebook by searching @carriageonthesquaresmokehouse.
Andrew:
Finally, let's check in with the Greensburg Decatur County library to see what events they have coming up.
Lori Durbin:
I'm Lori Durbin. I am the public services manager at the Greensburg Decatur County public library. In February, we have some of the things that we normally have on a rotating basis every month. We have our historical book and film club that is a group of people who meet to discuss historical books or films. They meet on the first Tuesday of every month at three o'clock and seven o'clock, and more information can always be found by coming into the library. We can let you know what books there are, that kind of thing.
Lori Durbin:
We also have our monthly coffee books and more. That is also a book discussion. That's on the second Thursday of every month at one o'clock. And then the children's room is still in the middle of toddler time and story time. Toddler time is for infants or toddlers, I suppose, ages 18 to 36 months and then story time is for ages three to six, and we host those on Monday evening, Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. We have a knit night that happens monthly as well. That is run by one of our board members and if anybody's interested in needlecrafts, crocheting, knitting, that kind of thing, they're welcome to attend. It's more of a group of people that sit down together to do those kinds of craft activities. Again, more information can always be found on our website, which is greensburglibrary.org or by calling the library at (812) 663-2826.
Andrew:
Thank you, Lori. That just about wraps up this episode of Beyond the Tree Tower: Stories From Decatur County, Indiana. If this is your first time listening, thank you. Be sure to check out the first three episodes. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts or wherever you listen. Tell a friend about the podcast and if you like what you've heard, be sure to rate and review. On the next episode of Beyond the Tree Tower, we take a look in high school basketball in Decatur County.
Andrew:
Be sure to subscribe so you will be notified as soon as the episode is published. We'll catch you next time, Beyond the Tree Tower.
