There's another picnic table in Oak Park for families to enjoy thanks to Jamie Murphy.
"My mom wanted to give back to the city of Minot so she bought the material and I built (the picnic table)," said Jamie Murphy, who built the picnic table in his garage over the July Fourth holiday.
The picnic table is about 5 feet wide and 6 feet long and is made out of green-treated pine.
Article Photos
Andrea Johnson/MDN
Jamie Murphy stands by a picnic table in Oak Park he built this past week and has donated to the Minot Park District. His mother, Kathy Jensen, donated the materials for the picnic table.
"I probably started at 4 o'clock and I got it done by 10 o'clock," said Murphy, who graduated this spring from Minot High School and is employed at Future Builders in Minot.
Murphy said he plans to attend a carpentry program this fall and make his career in the field. He also had two years of construction technology classes at Minot High School.
"This is my first big one but I've built small ones before," said Murphy, who also built a child-sized picnic table separately on Wednesday.
Murphy said the Minot Park District was happy to accept another picnic table for the park.
Murphy said he and his mother, Kathy Jensen, enjoy the park. They sometimes walk around Oak Park and admire the Christmas lights that are hung in the park during the holiday season. They also were here during last summer's catastrophic flooding and were evacuated for a time, though their home was not flooded.
The picnic table was placed in a picnic shelter next to the splash pad at Oak Park and was already in use on Saturday afternoon by a large family.
A plaque will be installed on the picnic table within a few weeks to let people know who built it. The plaque will also note the picnic table is dedicated to the Class of 2012 and Michelle Larson, a Minot High School teacher who died in May.