Jefferson County Councilman Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), with help from county staff members and community group representatives, has transformed an overgrown, vacant property on High Ridge Boulevard into a public commuter lot and pocket park.
Haskins organized a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 7 to celebrate the recent improvements to the approximately 1/3-acre property at the corner of High Ridge Boulevard and Old Hunning Road across from the High Ridge Post Office.
About 50 people attended the ceremony.
The site was home to a gas station about 20 years ago, and at one point a car lot was located there, but it was left vacant, with overgrown trees and junk cars scattered across it, Haskins said.
The county purchased the property for $32,000 earlier this year and created an asphalt parking lot with 18 public parking spaces there. The extra parking was created for the Public Works Department to temporarily store equipment, like mowers, that employees use in the area. The lot also provides parking for people visiting the park or walking up and down the boulevard. Haskins said Public Works permitted him to develop the rest of the property into a small park, complete with a butterfly garden, rock garden, picnic tables, benches, a pavilion and a small playground.
“There was a lot of talk on Facebook: Was this a park or a parking lot? It’s both,” Haskins said. “We have a very nice commuter lot, and we also have a very nice pocket park. The Highway Department did an amazing thing; they took something that was a horrible little eyesore for about 30 years, and they helped create, with a little bit of vision, what we have now.”
Haskins enlisted the help of the H-J Family of Companies, Jefferson County Parks Foundation and High Ridge Rotary Club to fund the new park amenities.
H-J Family of Companies donated $20,000 for the project. The company was founded in 1969 on the boulevard and now has manufacturing facilities in Brazil, Canada, China, India and other countries.
In honor of the large donation, Haskins had a sign with the H-J logo mounted on the pavilion located at the rear of the property.
Henry Evitts, vice president of manufacturing at H-J, said the parking lot and park are good additions to the new sidewalks along the boulevard. A county construction project began in August 2023 to improve storm sewers and install sidewalks and streetlights along the street for a total of $2.69 million. The project was completed in fall 2024.
Evitts said High Ridge has evolved significantly since his company was founded more than 50 years ago.
“I was 17 when we started the company, and I’m 73 now,” he said. “(High Ridge) was nothing back then. We had the post office and the firehouse, but none of the other businesses were here – no places to eat except the High Ridge Dari-ette. A lot of people live back off this road, and you don’t realize that. (The park) will be a great thing for them.”
The Jefferson County Parks Foundation donated about $5,000 for landscaping, specifically native plants known to attract butterflies.
The High Ridge Rotary Club donated about $6,000 to place park benches and picnic tables at the front of the property and a playground for small children at the back, club president Mark Janiesch said.
Jim Myers, a High Ridge Rotarian, attended the ribbon cutting with his wife, Carol. He said the new park is “such a better spot to look at” than the vacant lot.
“This is a place to come and relax, bring your kids,” he said. “I envision us coming here often, maybe getting carry-out from Dave’s Diner and eating here. It makes coming up to High Ridge more pleasant.”
Transformation
Preparing the vacant lot for the public to enjoy was a labor of love, Haskins said.
County crews worked to remediate four abandoned fuel tanks on the property by filling them with gravel and grading the site earlier this year. That work cost $16,275.24.
Elijah Huddleston, owner of Hudds Tree Service in House Springs volunteered to remove overgrown trees, brush and vines infiltrating the property, Haskins said.
Once the site was cleared and graded, country crews poured an asphalt parking lot for about $8,750, and two signs were installed near the parking lot entrance for about $5,000. One sign says, “High Ridge Community Parking Lot – Owned by Jefferson County, Missouri.” The other lists the rules for using the lot, such as no long-term parking, no soliciting and no unauthorized commercial activities.
Haskins said he and his family got to work in June, transforming the remaining property into the park. He and his son, Ben, built a wooden flower box around the large sign at the lot’s entrance. With the help of his wife, Becky, Haskins planted 250 hardy perennials, such as hibiscus and mums along one side of the property to create a butterfly garden.
He said they laid down about 30 yards of mulch in the garden area and made about 40 trips up to the park to water the plants.
Angie Hileman owns a kitchen remodeling business called G.A. Chott & Associates next door to the new park. She said she offered Haskins access to her building’s water main “right away” to water the plants when she found out about the project.
“We offered before they even asked,” Hileman said. “I was all for the park. We’ve come over here for lunch a couple of times. We have customers come to the office to pick stuff out, and we used to be so embarrassed (by the vacant lot). Now, everybody notices how nice it is.”
Jamie Gibson, also with G.A. Chott & Associates, said the county got rid of a huge nuisance when it took over the property.
“I remember trying to take care of our side of the fence before they took it over,” she said. “I always tried to clear everything. Now, you look out and it’s so pretty; we don’t have to try and come over here and get the weeds off our fence.”
The Parks and Recreation Department helped pour concrete pads for two picnic tables and two benches the Rotary Club donated.
Haskins said he repurposed a few old and unused heavy-duty concrete trash cans from the Parks Department as large planters. The decorative planters provide a barrier between the traffic on the boulevard and people sitting at the picnic tables.
Haskins said a designated gravel area near the entrance is perfect for food trucks to serve customers.
“Maybe we’ll have three to four trucks that will circle through on different days,” he said. “We’ll see how that goes.”
In the rear of the property, beyond the parking lot, is the pavilion, a charcoal grill, playground and seating area with Adirondack chairs.
Haskins created a rock garden on the side of the park parallel with Old Hunning Road to dissuade people from parking along the road. He said the 32 boulders in the rock garden came from his own backyard.
“We don’t have to weed-eat around them anymore,” he joked. “I’ve got 20 tons of clean rock underneath, and $3,000 worth of decorative Idaho stone on top. I probably made 30 trips with my dump truck and tractor for it.”
High Ridge resident Alice Hamlin said she considers the new park an asset to the community and a great place for family gatherings of all kinds.
“Anniversaries, birthdays, the list just goes on and on,” she said. “You’ve got it all, right here.”