Black bear sculpture made of recycled tires unveiled at Taneytown’s Bollinger Park

Visitors to Bollinger Park’s new 1-mile trail at Taneytown’s Bollinger Park will be greeted with a wave from a large black bear and her cub, both made of recycled tires.

Sculptor Noah Russell, 24, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, created the piece, which was installed recently, and said it is “surreal” that his work is on display at the park.

“It’s cool to me that somebody believed in the art enough to say, ‘Hey we would love to have his art displayed at a brand-new park,’” he said.

Lorena Vaccare, director of Taneytown’s Department of Parks and Recreation, said the idea to install a sculpture at the park came about after she drove past another sculpture Russell made of a dragon outside Breighner’s Tire Center in Littlestown, Pennsylvania, where he works.

“I stopped in [the tire shop] and got in contact with him and asked him if he could make us a couple of bears, which he agreed to,” she said. “He’s done a wonderful job, he’s a great local artist, he’s young [and] very talented.”

Taneytown has spent about $800,000 creating its newest park, with about half coming from grants, and some funding coming from impact fees. A 2022 grant in the amount of $231,740 was awarded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources via the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service’s Land & Water Conservation Fund. Also in 2022, $5,000 for the pollinator meadow was awarded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund. Another $150,000 was given by the DNR’s Community Parks and Playgrounds program in 2018.

The new park will feature a 2-acre pollinator meadow and apiary, a meditation garden and fishing spots at Piney Run Creek. It will be accessed on Fringer Road, just off Francis Scott Key Highway, also known as Route 194, and has been in the making for years.

The foundations of the park were laid in 1997 when Percy and Pauline Bollinger donated 51 acres to the City of Taneytown for nature and forest conservation, according to Vaccare. Taneytown later acquired adjacent properties to comprise the 102-acre nature area that exists today — 40 acres from David Garrett in 2014 and 11 acres from Robert Dayhoff in 2003.

Construction began last June. Vaccare had anticipated Bollinger Park’s opening for November, but delays caused by material shortages and uncooperative weather have pushed it back until at least March.

“Knowing how important it is for people to connect with the outdoors in a peaceful, natural setting, the city planned to develop Bollinger Park as a nature conservancy that the public can enjoy without the distractions of sports activities or large community events,” Vaccare said in an email in January.

Baltimore Sun Media reporter Thomas Goodwin Smith contributed to this story.