Hanging Flower Baskets Bud Caldwell Beautification

Caldwell Councilman Joseph Norton, chairman of the downtown committee, introduced during Tuesday night's council meeting a potential borough slogan: Discover Caldwell.

To help people find their way, 18-inch baskets—filled with seasonal flowers and plants—will soon hang from light posts along Bloomfield Avenue to better distinguish the downtown area.

"I think this is so exciting," Councilman Kay Slattery said. "I love this."

The initiative has been spearheaded and funded by the Caldwell Downtown Alliance's Project Main Street, which raised nearly $24,000 at its Beautification Dinner last month at Luce Restaurant.

According to Alan Schindler, a member of Project Main Street, the group netted approximately $12,000 from the event that will be used toward purchasing the 25 to 30 baskets, flowers and watering device.

The portable 25-gallon watering machine with a "telescoping wand" will be used about three times a week by volunteer landscapers and residents to keep the flowers alive and will be stored in Caldwell's Department of Public Works facility.

"The worst thing we can do is put these up and let them die," Schindler said. "Believe it or not, it happens in a lot of towns. It's amazing how often it happens."

Caldwell's council unanimously passed a resolution to move forward with the initiative.

According to Schindler, PSE&G, which owns the light posts, needs to first verify the insurance of the borough, the downtown alliance and the volunteer contractors who will install the baskets. Schindler expects them to be hung on alternating lamp posts in early July.

In addition, Norton said banners that will be rotated seasonally or for individual events are being considered to hang along Bloomfield Avenue as well—another effort to get more people to "Discover Caldwell."

"We're trying to come up with a borough slogan for downtown. A lot of ideas were thrown out on the table. I think our working title that we're going to go with is something in the order of 'Discover Caldwell,'" Norton said.

"It kind of encompasses a little bit of everything, with a little bit of history and a little bit of the future."

According to Norton, a calendar of themed events—at least one each month—is also being assembled for next year to further drive downtown interest.

Norton provided the following sampling of potential events for the first half of 2011:

• January—The second annual Gold Rush's final raffle and the start of a year-long initiative of dinner and a movie, sponsored by the Caldwell Merchants Association.
• February—A Groundhog Day event, as well as a wine and cheese tasting for Valentine's Day.
• March—An all-children's St. Patrick's Day parade.
• April—A black-tie Independent Film Festival and the second annual Presidential Luau.
• May—Art on the Avenue, a Mr. Mom's program for Mother's Day, the second annual Beautification Dinner and the annual West Essex Memorial Day Parade.
• June—A Daddy's Day Out for Father's Day at Calandra's Italian Village.

"This is a work in progress," Norton said. "We want to put together a full program of events to promote downtown."