A Presidential-Sized Project

Frank Sharum knows what landscaping the grounds of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock is, and he knows what it isn’t.

“It’s not a Wal-Mart in Crossett, Ark.,” Sharum said. “Everyone is going to know about it and hear about it.”

His company, Frank Sharum Landscaping & Design in Fort Smith, Ark. won the bid for the project in the fall of 2002, which costs “in excess of $2 million,” Sharum said.

Ceremonies opening the library will be held today.

Only one other company, California-based ValleyCrest, was allowed to bid for the project because of the size and scope of the project, Sharum said.

He said he was honored just to be picked to compete with ValleyCrest.

Despite having worked on other million-dollar projects like Beverly Enterprises’ corporate headquarters in Fort Smith and Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, he said the Clinton center is “the biggest thing I’ve ever done.”

Sharum Landscaping began reshaping the 32-acre library grounds near the Arkansas River in February 2003.

As construction progressed and different areas have become available to be worked, the company’s landscapers and workers for companies with which Sharum has subcontracted have come in to sculpt the site.

The work has been done piecemeal until a big push in recent weeks to bring things to a near finish.

Although heavy rains this fall have turned the dirt into “soup,” according to Sharum, they’ve managed to complete everything that can be done now.

Crews on Monday wrapped up what was left and cleared out to make way for Secret Service personnel, media and people preparing for the dedication festivities.

That actually meant undoing some work already finished.

“What a lot of people won’t realize is they won’t get the full extent of it,” Sharum said. “They’ve withheld a lot of work. I’ve had to pull out about 50 to 75 trees because the press corps is complaining they can’t get the camera angles to the stages.”

When the celebration is over, Sharum’s crews will return to replant those trees plus another 300 in areas now occupied by bleachers and tents.

As of Monday though, it was 90 percent complete, according to Cinde Drilling, president of Landscape Architecture Inc., the Little Rock firm coordinating the work.

In addition to its administrative role, Drilling’s firm also designed the plantings and irrigation for the grounds.

The overall design, worked out by California-based Hargreaves Associates, was one that Sharum admires but had some initial difficulty getting used to.

“It goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever done,” Sharum said. “Ridge lanes, perfect angles, no free forms, everything has got a place. You can’t just put stuff where you want it.”

To help with some of the difficult “land forms” that needed shaping and to implement the irrigation plan, Sharum brought in a Tulsa company, United Golf, with which he has had working partnerships before the library project.

About 20 people from subcontractors supplemented the 35 workers in Sharum’s company.

Crews rotated between the library landscaping and a $270,000 relandscaping project at the Little Rock airport and another one on the grounds of the Capitol.

That’s pushed everybody to their limits, Sharum said.

With many individuals working from 6 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., he’s paid a lot of overtime and driven himself hard as well.

“It’ll be complete,” Sharum said Saturday. “It’s going to get done. I’m drinking a lot of coffee, driving a lot of miles and eating a lot of Whattaburgers.”