Carlisle will bloom again this summer thanks to a $6,000 donation from the Carlisle Civic Foundation.
The donation will be split with $5,000 providing the funding for the hiring of an employee to water hanging flower baskets downtown and the other $1,000 directed to purchasing flowers, soil and fertilizer for 48 flower pots at stores in the downtown area that are part of the Bloomin’ Carlisle project.
The foundation was formed in October 2012 by members of the Carlisle Fraternal Order of Eagles to promote recreational, educational and community-related activities in the Carlisle area.
“The hanging flower baskets are a signature feature of downtown Carlisle’s vibrancy and efforts to keep downtown beautiful, but this major asset of downtown beautification in Carlisle was facing a problem this year,” said F&M Trust’s Ed Bidelspach, president of the Downtown Carlisle Association.
Glenn White, executive director of the association, said the problem involved the watering of the plants and developed within the last month. “That was something that we had learned about four weeks ago. It was something that was kind of unexpected,” White said. Cumberland County has ensured the plants were watered five days a week. The sixth day — usually on a weekend — was handled by the Rotary Club, White said.
The county used work-release crews and individuals working to fulfill probation requirements to water the plants, but that proved problematic due to a lack of consistency.
“It’s one of those things that you need to do it and you need to do it properly,” White said.The county brought in an intern to complete the task, but that also had its limitations.
White said the hanging baskets traditionally go up around Mother’s Day and come down in late September. Often, the intern was a college student who wasn’t available for parts of the season due to the summer-break schedule. “During the time the intern was not able to do it,
The Foundation has funded the hanging flower baskets in the Carlisle Borough since
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