Council OKs Main Street Flower Baskets

Just in time for the warm weather, flower baskets are returning to Main Street, compliments of the Town of East Greenwich. , representatives of the Main Street Merchants Association and the EG Chamber of Commerce hit pay dirt on visit number four, when the panel voted 4-0 to approve funding the baskets out of the current year budget during its meeting Tuesday night. 

With the hopes of boosting pedestrian traffic on Main Street, Diane Vallari of the Merchants Association and the Chamber’s Steve Lombardi .

The flowers and the banners are one expense. But the cost that seemed to frustrate Council members was the overtime fees associated with watering the baskets on weekends and holidays. While everyone agreed that the baskets have to be watered daily to survive, the estimated overtime of $5,000 was irksome.

Town Manager Bill Sequino proposed Tuesday that they tap some some surplus money in this year’s budget to pay for them, citing the largely snowless winter and savings on road salt and overtime for plowing. Council members agreed, especially after Diane Vallari told members she and her group would come up with alternative ways to fund the baskets — and the watering — in coming years.

One way, she mentioned, would be to have businesses sponsor the baskets. She also mentioned that communities like Barrington and Bristol have a volunteer organization that handles purchase and maintanence of public flowers. 

With the money for the flower baskets and these banners now in place, Vallari and Lombardi said they expect the flowers will be in place by Memorial Day.