Iconic Norris gazebo now has a new roof, fully paid for with community donations

September 24, 2025 by G. Chambers Williams III

The iconic downtown Norris gazebo now has a new roof, installed last week by a contractor hired through a volunteer group that raised money for the $6,500 project.

After the Norris City Council on Sept. 8 accepted the donated money and approved the expenditure to replace the gazebo roof, Jake Inglehart of JTI Construction LLC showed up at the site on Monday, Sept. 15, with helper Erik Richardson.

The two promptly removed the old roof and its understructure, and put a new understructure in place.

Then last Friday, they returned and installed the new roof, all in one day.

A group of Norris volunteers still plans to put fresh coats of wood stain on the gazebo structure within the next few days.

That group held a campaign in August to raise the money to pay for the gazebo renovations, and reached its goal – and then some – in just nine days.

But because the gazebo, in the downtown area, is owned by the city, the council was required to accept the donated money and then allocate it to the project.

“When people of this community value something, they will invest in it,” said Lisa Barger, who collaborated with Cynthia Edrington, Mike Robinson and Bonnie Peacock as the “Save the Gazebo Team.”

“While we reached our goal in nine days, what’s important is how many people donated,” Barger said. “We had 48 donations – some couples and some individuals donated.”

She said earlier that the plans for the gazebo renovations would be taken to the City Council for its approval and acceptance of the donations, and that work would begin within days after that.

“We’re really excited,” she said earlier. “We will have community volunteers doing the re-staining of the structure. We also plan to replace some of the benches inside, and hope to install lighting inside, as well, so people can sit there in the evenings.

“It’s not a fancy structure, but it’s iconic for Norris,” Barger said. “The kids sit in it all the time [after school]. We will have the Christmas lights and tree there again this year.”

Jane Stribling, who donated the gazebo and the land on which it sits to the city of Norris in August 1998, wrote on Facebook in early August that she and others were working with the Norris Lions Club to seek donations for the new roof. She also spoke during the Aug. 11 council meeting about the fundraising effort.

“Please support the fund to replace the Norris Town Center gazebo roof!” she wrote on Facebook. “The gazebo has been a cozy gathering place in Norris since 1998.

“It was the [brainchild] of my late ex-husband, Charley Wells,” Stribling said. “He grew up in Norris, retired here, and we donated the gazebo for the enjoyment of Norrisonions and their guests.”

Each holiday season, volunteers with the Norris Shines group put up about 10,000 lights on the gazebo, and decorate it with wreaths.