HANCEVILLE, Ala. – A generous donation of 19.52 acres of land to the City of Hanceville has recently been established by the city council as The Larry and Lillie Tucker Arboretum. The land was gifted to the city by Lillie Tucker and is located off Highway 31, south of Hanceville Firestation 1.
Mrs. Tucker joined the Hanceville City Council Thursday night where she finalized the transaction and learned of the arboretum to be named in she and her late husband’s honor.
Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail explained, “Lillie called me several weeks ago and said, ‘Kenneth, would you like to acquire the 19.52 acres next to the fire station?’ I said, ‘Lillie, what’s your definition of acquire?’”
She informed Nail that it was her wish to donate the property, appraised at $200,000, to the City of Hanceville.
An arboretum is defined by Oxford Dictionary as “a botanical garden devoted to trees.” Nail’s vision when he heard of Tucker’s intention was to commit to maintaining the natural beauty and fauna of the property while providing additional walking trails for people to enjoy. Nail explained, “We’ve got some good things planned down there already. We have talked about building an outside learning pavilion over there and my plan is natural trails that tie into the existing greenway trails.”
The trails on the property located on the west side of Highway 31 would continue under the highway bridge connecting to the trails at Hanceville’s Veterans Park which connects to trails leading to the Hanceville Civic Center.
Tucker was honored to learn that the arboretum would be named for her and late husband. She was emotional as she voiced her appreciation of Nail and the leaders of Hanceville saying, “I would like to commend this guy (Nail) for the work he does for the City of Hanceville. He has done a wonderful job here and I appreciate him so much.”
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