DORBA

Erwin Park Trail Maintenance Shed Restoration

About the Project

This Eagle Scout Service Project, led by Braden Verbrugghe of BSA Troop 289, focuses on restoring and protecting a vital piece of volunteer infrastructure at Erwin Park. The structure—a heavy-duty storage shed repurposed from a box truck body—served as our primary home for trail maintenance mowers, trimmers, and tools for over ten years.

Recently, the shed had to be taken out of service after its old roll-up door broke off the tracks. This left the inside completely exposed to the weather, vandalism, and unwelcome trespassers. To make matters worse, rodents found their way into the back corners of the framing, nesting inside and causing thousands of dollars in chewed wiring and damaged equipment seats. Working alongside Erwin Park’s Trail Steward and the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association (DORBA), Braden is leading the charge to completely clean, repair, and secure this high-capacity storage shed so it can safely house trail-building tools once again.

Community Impact & Volunteer Support

Bringing this shed back online will immediately protect the community-funded materials, tools and machinery used to keep Erwin Park's trails clear, safe, and beautiful. Braden is funding the material costs using personal savings from his job at Bahama Bucks, which is being generously matched dollar-for-dollar by corporate sponsor VeWoCo LLC. 

Project Details Information & Goals

 Project Leader:    Braden Verbrugghe ([email protected])

 Scout Unit:   BSA Troop 289 (Prosper / Celina Area)

 Project Location:   Erwin Park, McKinney, TX

 Goal:   Turn an exposed, damaged shell back into a secure, weather-tight tool house

 Project Timeline:   Core work to be completed not later than 6/7/2026 (6 months from initial contact)

Step-by-Step Project Plan 

1) Cleaning & Clearing Out the Space

Step 1: Thorough Cleanup and Sanitization Empty the entire shed of old junk, forgotten debris, and pest nests. Clean and sanitize the interior floor and walls to create a safe, healthy workspace for the team.

Step 2: Removing Old Fixtures Take down the broken roll-up door panels and tracking brackets. Remove the old, damaged wood shelving and take off the unused exterior ramp so the new doors will have plenty of swinging clearance.

2) Finding and Sealing Pest Openings

Step 3: Inspecting Hidden Voids Carefully remove the back interior wall panels to look behind the frame and locate exactly where the rodents have been getting inside (the side panels are in good shape and will stay in place).

Step 4: Weather-Tight and Pest-Proof Sealing Pack all open gaps, seams, and holes in the back corner of the frame with industrial steel wool, then seal them tightly with expanding foam insulation to create a permanent barrier against pests.

3) Building the New Interior & Flooring

Step 5: Flooring Tune-Up Scrub and inspect the original wood flooring and baseline boards to make sure they are strong, clean, and ready to hold heavy trail machinery.

Step 6: Building Sturdy New Shelves Measure, cut, and construct heavy-duty custom storage shelving along the back wall using minimum 2x4 wood studs and thick plywood sheets to keep tools organized.

4) Crafting and Protecting the New Doors

Step 7: Installing Custom Door Fronts Attach exterior-grade paneling and/or premium cement-cedar facade over the newly welded metal door frames. Ensure the center lines are straight and square so the double doors meet perfectly without a gap in the middle.

Step 8: Weather Stripping Install commercial-grade rubber edge guards and weather stripping around the door perimeters to keep out wind, dust, and heavy rain.

Step 9: Painting and Wood Protection Coat all new exterior paneling with a coat of light gray exterior paint to match the exisiting color of the structure (or paint entire structure one solid color - discussed "Avocado Green" color previously used by McKinney Parks Foundation).

5) Securing the Asset & Finishing Up

Step 10: High-Security Lock Installation Mount a dependable, heavy-duty latch mechanism and a strong lock on the new front doors to keep park equipment safe from theft and vandalism.

Step 11: Final Site Cleanup and Walkthrough Place all project trash into the park dumpster or stack larger pieces neatly by the road for trailer pickup. Do a final walkthrough with the Trail Steward to test out the doors, verify the checklist, and hand over the lock keys to the trail crew.