While it will be sometime yet before colourful blooms appear in Fort Frances, the local Chamber of Commerce already has flowers on the brain as it gears up for its annual beautification program.
Office manager Dawn Booth said Tuesday that the Chamber will be hanging 60 baskets in May or June—10 more than last year—to brighten up the stretch of King’s Highway from Tim Hortons to Central Avenue, then up Central Avenue to the Ontario Tourism Centre, and in the “gateway” area of town on Church Street and Mowat Avenue.
There also will be 18 planters put out on the traffic islands at Central Avenue, as well as one on the small traffic island across from Tim Hortons.
The Chamber’s beautification project is meant to complement that of the local Business Improvement Association, which includes flower baskets on the 100, 200, and 300 blocks of Scott Street, as well as benches and trash cans.
But beauty has its price and the Chamber needs community support to keep the program going.
“We try to add more baskets every year to keep expanding it,” noted Booth. “But, of course, the number of baskets we can add each year depends on the number of sponsors we get.
“The more sponsors we get, the longer we can maintain the program and the more baskets we can add each year.
“We definitely don’t want to bite off more than we can chew, so that’s why we’re moving so slowly, just adding a few baskets at a time,” she added.
Booth said the program, which was sponsored wholly by the Chamber in its first year, has seen generous support from the community over the past few years.
The program currently has 57 sponsors, but this year the Chamber has a goal of getting 75 during this sponsorship push.
Booth said people sponsor the program in memory of loved ones, in lieu of giving a gift to someone on birthdays, or at Easter and Mother’s Day, or just to help beautify the town.
She noted the Chamber’s long-term goal is to have flower baskets lining a route from businesses in the west end to the east end of Scott Street at the upper Rainy River.
But again, this all depends on sponsors.
Booth said sponsors should know that money donated does not go towards a specific basket or planter, but towards the cost of the program as a whole.
The cost is $50 per year, and sponsors can commit for a period of one-five years at a time if they choose.
“You can sponsor more than one [basket],” noted Booth. “We do have a few businesses and service clubs that do more than one sponsorship, and that’s nice.”
For more information on the beautification project, or to be a sponsor, call Booth at 274-5773 or drop by the Chamber office at 474 Scott St. (across from Safeway).
As previously reported, council agreed last month to once again have town employees water and fertilize the flowers during the summer months as it has in the past.
“It’s a definite bonus for us,” stressed Booth. “If the town wasn’t watering the flowers, there’s no way we’d be able to do the project.
“It’s a complete partnership between us and the town.
“Lowey’s Greenhouses has also been very generous in the last few years, donating specific baskets and helping out us out in that way,” she added.
“They put them up and take them down, and store them for us,” she noted. “They watch to make sure the flowers aren’t dying.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
