The Sweet Home Beautification Committee asked the Sweet Home Economic Development Group for funds to help purchase lamp posts for the Main Street median planters.
The SHEDG Board of Directors said it would consider the request during its annual retreat over the weekend.
The Beautification Committee raised $6,000, including $1,000 from SHEDG and another $3,000 in matching funds from the Sweet Home Community Foundation, to begin its work in the median over the last year.
“We have planted the area for which we sought the funds and have $2,500 left,” Alice Grovom, of the committee, said. “We came in way under budget. We are saving those funds for spring bulbs and will use the balance toward finishing the present project.
“The plan drawn up by the landscape designer calls for light fixtures that hold two large Victorian baskets in the summer time. In the winter, we would use banners on those arms to beautify our community.”
The Beautification plans to approach the foundation for further funding, Grovom said. “They told me before that I could come back and ask for more money for the project. I know they are very pleased with what has been done. I felt I had to come back here and ask first before I go to them again.
The committee can purchase the lamp posts for about $12,800, Grovom said. City Manager Craig Martin is applying for grant funds to help.
“We’re not stopping there. We want to keep going.”
Grovom told the SHEDG board to look at what the City of Toledo has done.
In a recent conference, attended by Martin and Economic Development Coordinator Karen Owen, Grovom said, one of the featured speakers talked about what his company looks for when it is looking for a new location.
“This professional said that when he drives to one of the towns or cities selected by the company or their organization, he drives through the community and if it is not attractive to the eye, he looks no further into that community’s attributes,” Grovom said. “Because of a first impression of Sweet Home, Sweet Home probably would not be able to attract that business.”
In addition to its efforts downtown, the beautification committee is working on plans for trees and plantings to enhance the Midway area. The committee also is planning work to build up and plant the median between 15th and 18th avenues.
The group would like to relocate some of the downtown flower pots, many of which are unused, to more effective places as well, Bill Carroll said.
“For those people who say we have tried it too many times, and it does not work,” Grovom said. “I got to thinking about those remarks, and I came to the conclusion that when you are raising a child and they do not succeed the first time, the second time or even a third time, do you say to the child, ‘Well, you have tried to do it and did not succeed so therefore you never have to try again?’
“I believe a community is sort of like raising a child, and you try and try and try again until at last you succeed. Please visualize how our town is going to look when we are finished.”
SHEDG Director Rich Rowley praised the committee’s efforts.
“That’s the best it’s ever looked,” Rowley said.