Decatur Beach Party free sand in demand

Early Saturday morning — as the last few notes of the band lingered in the air and vendors began breaking down their carts — a distinct sound could be heard at the Decatur Beach Party.

Scrape. Plop. Scrape. Plop.

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Hyosub Shin/hshin@ajc.com

Mike Travis, of Decatur, plays with his 4-years-old daughter Kagan during the Decatur Beach Party. The Decatur Business Association brings in 60 tons of sand and turns The Old Courthouse Square into a beach for the annual Decatur Beach Party in Downtown Decatur. Dance in the streets to the beach music from the live band. Activities include children’s boardwalk games, face painting, wading pools in the sand and more.

Just minutes after the midnight end to the annual shindig, a half dozen people were lined up, scooping the free sand into buckets, totes and truck beds. The 90 tons dumped on East Ponce de Leon Avenue to create a sandy playground is expected to be but a memory by today.

“I want to get it before it’s all gone,” said Bob Turton, a Decatur grandfather who skipped the party but made sure to be in line with his Ford pickup when the gates opened.

His sand is destined to be layered on top of a 28-foot pad of sand created when the family tore down their above-ground pool earlier this year. The grandkids, ages 7 and 9, hold mini beach parties and play volleyball on the sand.

Others grabbing their shovels had plans for sandboxes, fill for eroded yards and a mix to help break down Georgia clay to help their plants grow.

City crews with backhoes pushed what sand remained into parking spaces later in the wee hours Saturday. The city encourages the taking as a way to help clear the main drag through downtown, as well as to simply provide a freebie.

“It’s the neatest thing to see all this sand and then see it gone,” said Cheryl Burnette, the city’s director of special events. “I’ll be surprised if there is even a little mound by Sunday.”

Burnette and the Decatur Business Association scored a major coup by snagging a third truck of sand donated by Vulcan Materials. Vulcan usually drops off two truckloads, or about 60 tons.

The sand removal is as much a part of the show as the concerts and boardwalk games featured during the party.

“It might be a truck, a wheelbarrow, two little kids with buckets, then another truck,” said Judy Lubrutto, whose condo overlooks the action downtown. “It’s a great sight to see.”

Stragglers from the party itself paid little attention to the sudden burst of work, while longtime city workers simply gave a thumbs up when a new hopeful showed a spade.

At least some of the arrivals, though, wondered what people not-in-the-know might think.

Ben Kadingo and his daughter Rebekeh, 19, laughed and teased each other as they threw shovels full of sand into their pickup truck, bound for yard repair at their Avondale Estates home. Some of the jokes they shared involved grave robbing.

“We walked out in the cover of darkness with two shovels thrown in the back of the truck,” Kadingo said. “We worried about what our neighbors thought we were going to do.”