Man Always Ready to Help with Community Projects
LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!
Last week Mary Druthers, a local business owner, was confronted by a large safe that she needed to move into Fits & Wiggles, her Pet Health and Exercise Emporium on the corner of Elm Street and Hadderly Lane, in the mixed-use section of downtown Lankville. She knew just who to call.
Steve Niedermeyer was about to start loading a rental truck to move his family’s furniture, possessions, and farm implements to New River, when the Lankville State students he’d hired to help him failed to show up. Luckily, he had a backup plan.
And when a group of local artists gathered to retrofit an old tugboat as an “art barge” that will transport roving exhibits up and down Lankville Bay, there was one “mate” they were confident would be part of the crew.
Neil Marinovic is always ready to lend a hand.
The 32-year-old Lankville resident has made a habit of being a Good Samaritan-about-town. Whether it’s helping friends move, refurbishing an art space, or investigating an Incident, he’s “good to go,” as Marinovic asserted from his shared residence on Gulliver Avenue.
“I still remember the day we met to work on the Mud Pits,” recalled local enthusiast Morley Hastings. “It was kinda rainy, cold, there was mud and dirt everywhere,” he said, adding that the work was “definitely not for the feint of heart.” But Marinovic was there bright and early wearing knee-high all-weather boots over his characteristic seersucker suit, and he stuck around until the last scoop of mud had been lovingly ladled into the final pit.
“The guy’s a machine,” said Hastings. “It’s a little unnerving, actually.”
The mere announcement of the imminent closure (and planned burning) of the Giant Tart cafeteria, as reported in the Lankville News, was enough to bring Marinovic out to the Great Eastern Grassy Suburban Area on a vigil. There he joined anxious residents in queuing for a “last meal” before the popular eatery is closed for good by owner Dennis O’Fashioned Candies.
“It’s just what you do,” said Marinovic from his cell phone as he braved winter weather in the “swampy knoll” that surrounds the Giant Tart. “If I’m part of this community, I want to be part of the community, doing community things,” he said, adding that it’s important to him to take advantage of all the wonders and face all the challenges Lankville has to offer.
“That’s what makes it, you know, a community,” he said.
Neil Marinovic wouldn’t have it any other way.
LETTER SACK