Elizabethton Parks and Recreation is looking for volunteers, both individuals and from organizations, to sponsor landscape projects along the Tweetsie Trail.

The effort comes through discussions with Keep Carter County Beautiful and its upcoming Beautification Project, saying maintaining these completed projects is just as important as creating them.

“We have been working with KCCB for projects along the trail,” Parks and Rec Director Mike Mains said.

KCCB has put on this annual project for a number of years, but maintaining the completed projects has become a concern of the organization, so discussion during their last meeting turned to ways for community members to sponsor them to help out.

This kind of sponsorship would include weeding, trimming of shrubs and mulching, among other responsibilities.

“Elizabethton is beautiful,” Mains said. “We want to continue to push forward.”

Details are still under debate as to how much cooperation will take place between sponsors and Parks and Rec, though currently the city street department maintains Elizabethton’s section of the trail. He suggested sponsors could tend to the project roughly twice a year.

“We routinely ask if individuals can do something on the trail,” he said. “We hope our citizens are seeing what we are doing.”

Recreation manager David Nanney said this kind of sponsorship would also save the city money in its own maintenance work.

“It cuts down on our daily and weekly maintenance,” Nanney said.

He said the community’s involvement in the environment is important.

“It is important people do give back,” he said.

He pointed to organizations like Friends of the Park, who organize an annual cleanup across all city parks.

“What KCCB is doing is fantastic,” Mains said.

Plans along the Tweetsie Trail have to be cleared by a landscape plan from Johnson City, so once those details come together, Parks and Rec and KCCB can figure out the finer details on what would need to be done on such a project.

Those interested in reaching out to sponsor a Beautification Project can contact Parks and Rec at 423-547-6441 or by visiting them at 300 West Mill St.