Where should your flowers go?

After months of planning, the Downtown Improvement District is finally ready to pose a question to residents: Where on downtown light poles should flower baskets be installed?

On Thursday, a DID-funded exhibition of three options will be mounted on light poles at Main Street and Palm Avenue. Two of the flower baskets will be wrapped around the light poles, mounted 2 and 7 feet above the sidewalk. A third option will place the flower basket off to the side of the light pole, hung from an arm 7 feet off the ground.

The flower basket project has been a regular topic of discussion on DID agendas since May. DID Operations Manager John Moran said the project idea dates back almost a year earlier than that, and was based on a similar effort in Cape May, N.J.

The project has been on hold as the DID has dealt with board vacancies and budget shortfalls, but the group is ready to move ahead. Still, at Tuesday’s DID meeting, Moran said there could be some virtue in exercising patience. If the model exhibitions are left up over a six-month period, he said, it would allow the landscape architect working on the project to discover any maintenance issues before undertaking the installation.

Already, city staff has shared some concerns about the impact of the baskets on light poles with the group.
“The cautionary note from public works was — that location up high would obviously make the older poles more vulnerable than having nothing on them,” Moran said.

Moran said the DID would possibly be held liable for repairs if any light poles were damaged as a result of the project. Mark Kauffman, DID

chairman, said the project shouldn’t be held up by aging city infrastructure.

“If something has outlived its useful life, we shouldn’t be responsible just because we’re putting flowers up there,” Kauffman said.

Once it has locked in the ideal placement of the flower baskets, the board will determine the scale and scope of the project, called Downtown in Bloom. Moran has estimated that hanging baskets on the more than 130 light poles within the DID’s boundaries could cost as much as $100,000, though some board members have advocated for a smaller project that would cost less.

FLOWER POWER
Want to weigh in on the basket placement? Contact John Moran by email at [email protected].