Hello,

I am the President of Columbia Blooms, a new nonprofit in West Columbia, TX. We want to beautify our little town which is the First Capitol of the Republic of Texas. We have wonderful ideas and currently have four projects. Our next project is the actual site of the First Capitol. We are dealing with an intransigent City Council that seems to love concrete instead of beautiful plants.

Does anyone have ideas for garnering support from local businesses and others in town?

Thanks,
Sam Stamport

Maybe start with low-maintenance concrete planters. At least they will like the planters! And if you get kicked out of one spot, you can just roll the planters somewhere they will be appreciated.

I understand that shopping centers that want "zero-maintenance" planters use fired clay like Turface in the planters instead of soil or potting mix. Turface never compacts or rots.

Maybe instead of relying on "beauty" and "historic", you should try arguments like "attracts shoppers".

@Samstamport -- are you looking for financial support? or just approval to be allowed to create some plantings?

In either case, I would suggest writing up a formal proposal stating what it is that you would like to do, and then present it to the city council and any local association of businesses (for instance, the town that I'm near has a "downtown development authority"). Or the Chamber of Commerce. There may also be grants available from the state or federal government, which I admit to knowing nothing about how to obtain.

And, I agree with Rick -- phrase your proposal in terms that will offer a benefit to the city and to the businesses!

Weedwhacker said:...There may also be grants available from the state or federal government, which I admit to knowing nothing about how to obtain.

There are people who are "grant writers"; it's what they do. There are several listed in your area. Let them know what you want to achieve and let them weave their magic words and hopefully you will receive a grant.

(I once used the services of a grant writer and could have obtained $300,000.00 to start my own business. Grant writers are pretty good at what they do. )

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Rick: Concrete planters or pots or any kind of planters do no work well here on the Texas Gulf Coast. We would have to water every day and in the heat of the summer twice a day. I like your idea of focusing on "attracts shoppers".

Sandy: We are looking for financial and political support. The City approved Phase 1 of our plan the other two phases are contingent on us putting up $15,000 just in case my organization fails to maintain the park. The $15,000 (which is excessive) would pay the City to rip out all the plants & replace them with gravel.

This was the reaction when we made a formal PowerPoint presentation to City Council.

We currently have a grant for phase 2 that is due to be completed by the end of August.

The latest roadblock the City put up is that now they don't want us to do ANYTHING until after their February meeting. Chances are they will decide against the whole project in February.

Greene: We have a grant write and are poised to secure financing for the whole project. That, unfortunately, does not matter to the City. They seem to hate plants no matter what.

Sam

P.S. I apologize for not replying sooner. I guess I don't know how this forum works. I thought I'd get an email when someone posts to this thread, but I didn't.

>> Rick: Concrete planters or pots or any kind of planters do no work well here on the Texas Gulf Coast. We would have to water every day and in the heat of the summer twice a day. I like your idea of focusing on "attracts shoppers".

I understand. Like having your root zone in a steamer.

Where I live, we don't worry about hot, constant sun scorching plants' roots. We're more likely to be asking what that strange, round, bright-yellow-thing-in-the-sky IS.