ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Doug Steger may be offering the town of Pulaski a deal it can't refuse. Unlike the fictional "Godfather" characters who employed threats, Steger is using flower power.
Steger, owner of The Flower Shoppe, proposed flower, tree and grass beautification around town entrance signs on U.S. 11 and Virginia 99 as well as the Pulaski Municipal Building.
The town's Public Operations Committee agreed Tuesday to recommend accepting the proposal, if town officials can find the necessary $5,445 to cover it.
The recommendation should carry a lot of weight with council, because every council member as well as Mayor John Johnston attended the committee meeting. Town Manager Tom Combiths said no money was budgeted for such initiatives "but we can hunt and peck and look around," he said, mainly in council's capital improvements money. But some of that is needed for such things as fiber-optic communication lines for the town.
The costs of plantings around the town hall would be $3,570. For the entrances, it would be $797.50 for U.S. 11 and $1,077.50 for the larger area on Virginia 99. Steger said he would donate some of the annual flowers at each sign if he got the contract.
Steger's interest in beautifying Pulaski goes back more than a decade. He worked with then-Town Manager Dan McKeever to seek donations from businesses for plantings around town. "Believe it or not, people will drive hundreds of miles to see plants they can't see elsewhere," he said.
The donations and plantings increased each year for three years, from $4,000 to $6,500, with the town matching them. "After we got the ball rolling, the Beautification Committee came along and said, 'Hey, that's what we're supposed to do,'" Steger said. But corporate donations dropped off because there was no regular solicitation, he said.
Flower barrels outside downtown businesses also began deteriorating when their maintenance was left to individual store operators instead of a contractor, Steger said.
Store operators had complained of vandals ruining some of the flower barrels on Main Street.
Steger also suggested hanging floral baskets downtown, and contracting with him or some other professional for tree maintenance. "You make Main Street attractive, people will come," he said.
He said Pulaski may be able to get some free labor for beautification through the Virginia Tech Extension Service's master gardeners program, in which participants must perform 100 hours of community service.
Steger's shop was recently chosen as one of 175 U.S. distributors of English perennials, called Blooms of Bressingham.
Those perennials will be rare in this country for some time, he said, and suggested the town allow him to display them in its public parks as another attraction for visitors. He will bring a formal proposal to council later.
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