Volunteer Roy Overly hangs flower baskets Sunday on East King Street. More than 60 volunteers hung 225 baskets throughout Lancaster city. Photo Courtesy Lancaster Newspapers

Lancaster Intelligencer Journal

May 19, 2008

Despite the cloudy skies and rain, downtown Lancaster became a bit brighter Sunday morning.

More than 60 volunteers from LEADS - Lancaster's Economic Action for Downtown's Success - rose early to hang 225 flower baskets throughout the city. Also Sunday morning, the law firm of Kegel, Kelin, Almy & Grimm spread mulch around 450 city trees.

"Hopefully this is a good sign," said Patti Connell, referring to the rain that started after past noon. Connell is president of Land Transfer Co. Inc. and a volunteer for LEADS. This is the nonprofit organization's ninth year of hanging flower baskets.

"After eight years, you get the science down," Connell said. In 2006, LEADS also took on the job of downtown Lancaster's Christmas decorations.

LEADS sells the flower baskets, containing either geraniums and petunias or red dragon wing begonias, for $75 each in September. Buyers can ask to have their baskets placed on a particular street on a first-come, first-served basis.

"We sold out so quickly this year," Connell said.

LEADS workers crossed paths with the KKAG law firm staff and friends who were busy spreading mulch in the tree "pits" built into city sidewalks.

"We had four trucks and divided into four different groups. Each group went to a particular quadrant," said Clarence Kegel, founder of KKAG, wearing a T-shirt that read "Mulch a Tree with KKAG."

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray was looking forward to the beautification projects last week.

"Each year, this really just causes the city to be neater, crisper and cleaner," he said Thursday. "It brightens the look of downtown."

Gray noted his appreciation for those involved.

"Both of these projects show the power of volunteerism. So often you rely on the government for these projects, but here you have a civic sense of responsibility to work and to beautify downtown," Gray said.

KKAG took on the project after Lisa Riggs, executive director of Downtown Investment District and president of James Street Improvement District, asked local businesses to volunteer.

The law firm "went way beyond our expectations," Riggs said. KKAG helped cover the cost of more than eight truckloads of mulch.

In spring 2007, JSID began managing many of DID's operations. When JSID took over the mulching last summer, "We had to wing-and-prayer it," Riggs said.

"The logistics of it are challenging. Normally you just dump a load of mulch somewhere. But with 450 tree pits you can't just leave a pile of mulch in Penn Square," Riggs said.

As skies cleared on Sunday afternoon, pedestrians could be heard complimenting the downtown beautification. By 1:30 p.m., both KKAG and LEADS volunteers had finished tending to the last of the downtown foliage.