Gwen Stokes and Verna Smith, sisters, are great, great, great-grandchildren of Rayland and Rowena Lindley, the pioneer West Hills farmers who arrived in Warhaven in 1872. Both women reside on the Lindley Compound, that section of land with a perimeter of no-nonsense eight-foot fencing.

Illustrious, industrious, chivalrous Philander Jones, Warhaven city councilor, mayor, chair of scores of committees, sits at his roll top desk in his wheeled chair, fumbling, an ever-increasing tremor in his right hand. He stares at the legal document before him, a codicil or appendix, he doesn’t remember now, a document which comes in and out of focus for him.

At 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13, the City of Bingen celebrated the remodeled playground at Daubenspeck park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.