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Highlands Today

Council Wants Valencia Circle Park Evaluated

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: December 4, 2008

SEBRING - Basically, the city park at Valencia Circle looks better than it ever did.

That is what the Sebring City Council told Ted Budary on Tuesday when he complained about his neighbor putting in a cement horse, patio furniture and lawn ornaments.

The city park is located at Valencia Avenue and Summit Drive.

Budary told the council that in his opinion the park looks ridiculous. He asked council members if any of them had gone to the park to look at it.

They each raised their hands acknowledging they did.

He was angry with his neighbor, Mary Shivers, who began placing personal items into the circle, including a horse statue, tables, chairs, birdbaths and bird houses.

He said in a previous interview that he thought it looked more like an extension of Shivers' front yard than a city park.

However, Council President Bud Whitlock said he drove by the park and was glad that finally some of the residents in the area had taken pride in their park and fixed it up.

He remembered when the park was just weeds and a few trees, but did not get into any explanation why the city park was allowed to look so shabby in the first place.
Councilwoman Margie Rhoades suggested that council give the new Director of Public Works Robert "Rob" Miller his first job.

"The city could take possession of those things," said Rhoades, to make the yard items official. "This is called passing the buck."

The horse was previously approved, and Shivers got their permission to put it there.

Budary tried to argue that the petition stated it would be a bronze horse and this one was made of cement.

Council members agreed that they understood at the time they approved it that it would be a cement horse, painted to look like bronze.

Miller was directed to go to the park and evaluate the situation and assess what is in there. Some could be donated to the city park; other items could be removed; whatever his evaluation is.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Mayor George Hensley told Budary and said the way the circle looks now reflected a significant amount of community pride.

Budary argued most of those people who signed the petitions don't have to look at the park every day. His is one of only four homes located on the circle.

He was told that the situation was now under Miller's direction.

Resident Gordon Delp said he was the one who took it on himself to circulate a petition in support of Shivers' activities in the park.

"Mary took it on herself to work on improving the park," said Delp.

He added that in his opinion there is nothing offensive in there that he could imagine.

Rhoades said the city needed to set some parameters.

"There shouldn't be anything there that the city shouldn't approve of," she said.

Shivers said Tuesday that people could not even put down a blanket in the circle and have a picnic without being attacked by fire ants.

"If I put too much out there then I'll take it out," she said.

She said she was hurt by a prior newspaper story and resented the bad telephone calls being called in to the city complaining about her.
Whitlock assured her she's done an excellent job.

"The circle looks the best it's looked in years," he said.

Shivers said she did it because she wanted people to have a place to go. She said she had to be out with people and likes children.

She said Monday that she took it on herself and with the help of friends, neighbors and even students from the Avon Park Youth Academy to put down ant killer, pulled out a pineapple fern that she said was a source of the ants in the center of the circle and worked on landscaping the park.

"I can't dig anymore, I'm 69 years old," she said.

City employees periodically would bring in mulch, she added.

Some nearby residents got involved and built a checker table and placed it in the park.

She told Highlands Today on Monday that the previous story that appeared in Sunday's newspaper was not accurate. When asked what was incorrect, she said Budary stated she called it "her" park.

"I have never ever said that to anyone," she said.

She said she did not inherit the house from her mother and father, as Budary had stated; it was deeded to her.

She said the horse is in memorial of her late husband, Steve, with whom she trained horses and judged horse shows in Richmond, Va. She also worked as a high school guidance counselor.

She said she had three major losses in one year; first her mother, then her husband and then her father. She had been riding the train on the weekends to visit her parents at the Palms.

Her attorney advised her to slow down for her health. It was then she moved to Sebring to take possession of the house.

Being an early riser, having taken care of horses for years, she needed something to keep her occupied and with the help of her neighbor, Gloria Seymour, began working on the circle, first adding a bird bath, then planting flowers.

"It's the community's circle, not mine," she said.

She said she checked with Road, Building and Grounds Supervisor George Fox who she said didn't have a problem with it.

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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