Patsy Adams of the Spade and Trowel Garden Club, Claudia Perkins of the West Central Garden Council, and Debbie Gignilliat and Barbara Holloway of the Green Thumb Garden Club came to offer advice and thoughts on the ongoing reviews of Thomaston’s landscaping plan as well how to continue to beautify Thomaston at the August 3 meeting of the Thomaston Tree Board.
Tree Board Chair Jane Burdette said City Manager Russell Thompson has asked the council to help with downtown trees and said Public Works Director Kyle McGee now has the staff ready to make sure that happens.
Beautification manager Joe Marston, who previously owned the Pool Room Cafe, won praise from McGee and Thomaston economic development co-ordinator Taylor Smith, who said they had both noticed a rapid change in the health and growth of flowers in the town center since Marston took on the beautification job for Thomaston.
Smith commented, “If we can find something that works, I don’t care if the downtown stuff is taken care of.”
Hanging baskets around town continued to be a featured topic, but garden clubs chose to take the idea down a different path. Gignilliat noted that without the proper infrastructure, hanging baskets were difficult to water properly. McGee said an updated streetscape for downtown was coming, but it likely wouldn’t be within the next two years.
The planters and urns were a source of common ground as all parties agreed they would be a quick and easy way to beautify the town center, especially as the space where the famous Crepe Myrtles of the city are generally bare and open.
Kathy Ashberry commented: “The tree council would like to do two [planters]. We would like to adopt the northern triangle in front of Upperkrust. Lane Coggins’ idea was to invest in a ballot box and each club could do it themselves and adopt a triangle in town. There are not a lot. And then if the local shops wanted to help water them, and you could do your own thing, do it the way you want for your club and change it up whenever you want.
Holloway said adding Mondo grass around the bases of trees could be a solution, but Gignilliat added that soil would need to be added and beds around trees would need to be raised for this option to work. McGee said the type of money that would be needed to complete is not available at this time.
Burdette commented that she, along with the tree board, did not believe in “reinventing the wheel”. She said the council had streetscape plans from a decade ago and even from the 1980s.
Smith said, “We paid for those plans, but when it comes to implementation, we’re dropping the ball.”
Burdette asked garden club representatives how the tree sign could work better with garden clubs. Holloway floated the idea of an advisory “downtown beautification committee” that would include a representative from the tree council and each of the garden clubs, as well as the president of the West Central Georgia Garden Council in a similar role. , as the Thomaston-Upson Archives is a member of the Historic Preservation Commission.
Tree board member Susan Fornby volunteered for the committee.
● The new dog park in Silvertown will open on September 1, according to McGee.
●The board will write a certificate of appreciation to The Home Depot for the donation of two pink dogwood trees provided for the raffle at the Thomaston Art & Soul Festival in April.
● Discussion continued around memorial tree plantings and memorial benches downtown, but McGee noted that City Council still hasn’t fully resolved the issue.
●Lane Coggins has resigned from the tree board and a new position on the board is vacant.
●McGee said he would like to buy the plants the town wants from the local school system at its annual plant sales. McGee commented: “It was brought up last year, but the timing didn’t work out.” He added: “It could save us a lot of money.”
