More Beautification around Indian River Bridge

We did it again.

Six volunteers joined us today for our second Adopt-A-Spot beautification event at the Indian River Bridge, this time tackling the southeast corner.   Repeating the design we installed a few weeks ago on the opposite end of the bridge, our team planted beauty berry, verbana, muhly grass, and mums.   We also planted encore azaleas in the planters at both ends of the bridge; they are still small but they'll grow.

Over the winter, we'll be doing more planning with the city to extend and expand our beautification activities along Indian River Road.   A big thank you to our volunteers who put in 23 hours today digging, pruning, planting and watering - working to make our community more attractive.

Council Member Debbie Ritter attends monthly meeting

We had a very engaging discussion with Council Member Debbie Ritter at our meeting yesterday.   The conversation ranged from how the city government is organized (the Council sets policy and the City Manager and Departments execute day to day operations), to the Council's oversight responsibility, to how the state legislature must pass enabling laws for local government to take action because of the 'Dillon Rule'.

Closer to home, we discussed how the Indian River neighborhoods, being a mature community, often feels forgotten by the city when it focuses on new high growth areas.   We have areas - particularly around the old Indian River Shopping Center - that need revitalization, but the city generally is not focused on incentives for retail business.   But we need attention and we need a plan.   Volunteer efforts for block by block beautification are useful, but a more concerted effort with the city is desired.   We left the meeting with the intent to keep the conversation going with City Council members, the Norfolk Highlands Civic League, and the property owner, and other interested parties.

Thank you to Sandy for bringing brownies and Sharon for bringing Banana Bread.

We still welcome more volunteers for our beautification and planting work at the Bridge tomorrow, Saturday, October 13, starting at 9 am.   If you are going to the Indian River High School Fall Craft Show on October 20, we'll have an information display at booth 76; stop by and say hi.  Our next regular meeting will be Thursday, November 8 and will include a slide show about local wildlife; we'll also collect non-perishable food for the Oaklette United Methodist Church food pantry at that meeting.

Indian River Beautification

Volunteers at Work

We had another great event along the Indian River today.   It was the first day of fall and a team of our volunteers assembled for the first phase of our beautification effort around Indian River Bridge.   Our goal is to cleanup the planters at the four corners of the bridge and add new planting in the area around those plantings.  Eventually we hope to extend these beautifcation efforts up and down Indian River Bridge.

Before

For today, our goal was the area around the southwest corner of the bridge, that is the eastbound approach.   The crepe myrtle in the planter was obscured by an old overgrown azalea and a web of weeds and vines.  Nine volunteers gave up much of their Saturday to tear out the overgrowth in the planter and hacking away with hoes and shovels, clear a large patch of wire grass in front of the planter.    We also tackled the wire grass in the sidewalk schemes around the planter.

After

Into the cleared ground we planted a pair of pink muhly grasses, a beauty berry bush, verbana, and for some immediate color seven mums.  All topped off by a layer of mulch.   As we were finishing up our work, watering the newly installed plants, we were thrilled by residents complimenting us on our new garden.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers for coming out and spending a total of 40 hours at the site.

The next work day at the next bridge corner is scheduled for Saturday, October 13.   Stay tuned for more info.