By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
SPENCER ó The flower beds that line Spencer’s downtown streets are getting a new look thanks largely to members of the town’s Community Appearance Commission.
On Tuesday, commission members, a handful of other volunteers and inmates from a local prison unit planted more than 1,000 flowers in the brick planters that line South Salisbury Avenue through the heart of downtown.
The flowers include petunias, coleus, lantanas and vincas. They were donated by Rockwell Farms.
“This is temporary,” said Ed Robinette, chairman of the Community Appearance Commission. “We wanted some color in here this summer.”
Earlier this year, the crape myrtles and bushes that had dominated the planters were removed. Commission members reported to Spencer aldermen that the trees and bushes had outgrown the planters.
Commission members say they expect to plant more bushes and smaller crape myrtles later this year. But now is not a good time for such plantings, they said, thus the temporary fix of flowers.
“At least this will be pretty when we’re done,” commission member Beth Nance said Tuesday.
Marla Gobbel and her husband, Jim, also donated their time to help with the work earlier this week. Marla said she’s a member of the Spencer Woman’s Club, and said a commission member spoke to her organization recently about their plans to plant flowers.
“They asked for volunteers and I put my name on the list,” she said.
Eric Lentz, another commission member, also worked Tuesday. His co-workers said Lentz has played a big role in the project.