News Articles about Spring 2008 Beautification Day

From the Morning Star Business Report, May 2008:

Dewey Beach plans annual beautification day

By Ann Wilmer

    Members of the Dewey Beach Civic League will gather on the Saturday before Mother's Day with work gloves, trowels and other garden tools to spruce up downtown by planting flowers and tending the town's "garden" areas.
    David Main, president of the league said that the organization, which has been around for at least 20 years, took up gardening with a real passion last spring when they planted flowers in . front of town hall, pulled weeds and spruced up the median strip of Route 1 where it passes through downtown Dewey.
    Civic leaders and town officials were interested to learn that towns with trees and flowers planted and good landscaping enjoy a 12 percent increase in revenue streams to business and subsequent decreases in noise and crime," said Diane Hanson, a member of the Dewey Beach Town Council.
    Henry Poole, urban forestry coordinator, Delaware Forest Service, Delaware Department of Agriculture has been working with the town to do a tree inventory and develop a tree ordinance as part of an effort tp help the community develop plans to increase the urban canopy.
    According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an investment of $250-600 to cover the cost of planting and the first three years of maintenance while the tree becomes established, returns over $90,000 of direct benefits over the lifetime of the tree - and that doesn't include the aesthetic, social and natural benefits;
    For example, studies have shown that street trees, generally planted four to eight feet from curbs, and planters reduce the incidence of mid-block crashes by five to 20 percent.
    Scientists speculate that a well-defined street edge may be the contributing factor plus the presence of trees helps motorists to assess their speed. Texas A&M University did comparative studies that showed drivers slowed down when cruising a treed street but went faster through areas without street landscaping.
    Trees planted along sidewalks or in the median strip of dual lane roads form visible boundaries separating motorists from one another and pedestrians creating overall reductions in accidents. Urban area medians with trees are safer than those without.
    A Caltran 2003 study (California Department of Transportation) suggests that vehicle crashes can be reduced by as much as 50 percent.
    For municipalities seeking to better manage storm water run-off, trees are very helpful.
    Not only do they absorb the first 30 percent of precipitation that falls, they also soak up as much as 30 percent of the water that goes into the ground thus reducing the amount of storm·water (which becomes contaminated when it washes over paved areas) into the aquifer.
    These statistics not only caught their attention but fit well with community beatification plans.
    One of the missions of the Civic League is to "beautify the community," said Main. "We have a history of doing this sort of thing. Last year we decided to sponsor a town beatification day and ended up calling it "Unity for Beauty Day" on Mother's Day weekend."
    Main said the activity was an opportunity to help neighbors bridge political differences that surfaced prior to town elections last year.
    The participants, 70-some volunteers, accomplished a great deal and had fun doing it with friends and neighbors.
    Later that evening, they celebrated with a happy hour at the Starboard for participants to celebrate and talk. It was so popular that they repeated the. event in the fall and decided it should be an annual event.
    The happy hour was so popular that it has become a monthly event. Now they gather every month on the same Saturday that the town council meets, after the meeting, to socialize and, hopefully, smooth out any tension created by the meeting.
    Their efforts "made the town look better," said Main. Volunteers enjoy both the activity and the results. He observed that volunteers tend to be repeaters. And there is enough to do that volunteers with a wide range of abilities, physical and otherwise, can be accommodated.
    A major focus of this year's efforts will be replanting the entrance to the town according to what Todd Frichman, open space manager specialist with EnnviroTech, calls a conservation landscape plan.
    He donated his expertise to plan one of the town's main planting areas using all native plants species that will thrive in the microclimate of a barrier island community where the factors that stress plans are periods of drought, salt spray, intense sunlight and very well-drained sandy loam soil.
    To meet the town's goals for esthetic appeal, he picked plants that will present a pretty display year round including a ground cover of low-growing wildflowers, coastal azaleas, red chokeberries and winterberry holly.
    The advantages of this plan are considerably less maintenance than previous plantings, which required that water be brought to the site since it has no irrigation. The group is also working with Poole to get grants that will allow them to plant trees in tile median that are suitable to challenges of the .environment. The Bradford pear trees originally planted there were beautiful but not good choices for the median strip.
    If you are looking for something to do on Saturday, May 17, you can join the 70-100 volunteers at 9 a.m. at Dagsworthy Park to plant flowers at the town hall, clean up and plant bushes near the life-saving station, weed the median strips and plant some new trees to replace others that have died.
    Or if you are thinking about how your community might be enhanced by trees and other plantings, call Poole at 302-943-3593 for more information.

From the Cape Gazette May 15, 2008:

Dewey Civic league sponsors Unity for Beauty Day May 17

The Dewey Beach Civic League is sponsoring its second annual Unity for Beauty Day on Saturday, May 17. Civic league members and Dewey property and business owners will join together to plant flowers, trees and other greenery in the median strips along Route One.

    Flowers will also be planted in front of Town Hall and the Lifesaving Station where the town commissioners and official town committees frequently meet.
    "We're very excited to continue our tradition of making Dewey the special place we all know it can be. And this year we're 'going native' by installing plants and trees that are native to this area and will hopefully flourish in our seaside environment," said Commissioner Diane Hanson, the chairwoman of Beautification Day.
    All the plantings have been de-signed and supervised by Todd Frichtman of Envirotech Environmental Consulting Inc., in Milford. Frichtman is president of the firm and doubles as the captain of the Dewey lifeguards in summers. He is donating his time and his firm's resources to design the planting areas. As an aquatic biologist, Frichtman specializes in plantscapes that are native to the area that will survive the nor'easters that plague Dewey in the winter as well as the heat waves of the summer season. To volunteer, contact Hanson at dianehanson@ deweybeachcivicleague.org or by phone at 226-8728. Volunteers are asked to meet at Sunset Park at Dagsworthy Street and the bay at 9 a.m. Bring any garden equipment available such as trowels, shovels and rakes, as well as garden gloves, sunglasses and sunscreen, and a hat.