Anybody who has had occasion to drive or walk down Avenue U in recent days has surely noticed the high activity along the street in front of the Temple Inland offices.

Work crews have opened the fence, cleared cement, replaced it with soil and planted trees, flowers and even three flag poles in the process of creating a new, welcoming entry to the property.

Now a tree-lined drive runs from the street to the building, and out front, an American, Louisiana and Temple Inland flag each stands tall.

Company spokesman Ellis Sampson said it’s basically beautification in support of a similar push citywide.

“We are going to modernize our wood yard, and we got to looking at it and decided while we are doing that we need to look at the front,” he said. “We’re re-doing the entrance in support of new (Bogalusa) mayor Charles Mizell trying to make the whole city look better. He said, ‘Let’s dress up what we’ve got.’ We want to make it look as good as we can.”

Temple Inland is community-minded and wants to help the mayor help the city, Sampson said.

But there is one snag. While the work is being done, the fence across the drive that led to the car rinse that was available to the public has been closed and curtained. People have expressed concerns that it will remain off-limits.

Sampson said he is not sure. For one thing, now that the city has gone to metered water billing, that use of water could be costly.

“It was on city water, so it makes no sense to do it,” he said. “And the location is no longer convenient to anything.

“We’re trying to decide. Do we keep it? And if we do, where do we put it? We’re still trying to figure. We haven’t given up.”