A little weekend rain couldn’t keep the public away from adding an extra piece of allure to the City of Elizabethton.
Roughly 15 to 20 individuals from Carter County Proud, the Elizabethton Woman’s Civic Club and Lions Club joined together Saturday morning to plant flowers at the city’s welcome sign located on U.S. 321 near the Elizabethton Golf Course.
As cars lined the side of the road, Carter County Proud founder Ed Jordan couldn’t help but provide thanks to those that assisted from the organizations and the City of Elizabethton.
“I expected a good crowd, but this was great,” Jordan said Saturday. “Everything went by pretty fast. We were able to finish things up in about 30 minutes.”
Approximately 50 perennials were planted in the flower bed at the sign. The flowers were donated by Lowe’s of Elizabethton at no cost.
“We appreciate Lowe’s and manager Shane Case stepping in to donate the flowers,” Jordan said.
Another round of thanks from the different organizations was passed along to Station 3 of the Elizabethton Fire Department. Once the flowers were planted, firemen stopped by the area and watered the flowers.
At the conclusion of the planting project, Jordan added it was great to see the support from the community.
Saturday’s event also served as the kickoff for other events coming down the pipeline, according to Jordan. Carter County Proud recently met with the Elizabethton IDEAS Group, Parks and Recreation along with the city’s planning and development office of other ideas around the bend, which include beautification.
“We’re hoping this catches on all the down Elk Avenue to the Covered Bridge,” Jordan said. “Carter County Proud is also working to develop a plan to plant native trees and shrubs along the Tweetsie Trail, too. We’re going to have a board meeting this week to start putting that together to present to the city. If that gets approved, we have donors up in the mountain from nurseries that told us they’d provide us with the trees we need. They just need an advanced notice. Our goal is to get this together to have at least some of the project done by this fall.”
Jordan added he’s hoping to incorporate others in the planning process, including the city’s street maintenance department. The goal is to have islands of trees planted to help with easier upkeep.
“Overall, we want to make this project as maintenance friendly as possible,” Jordan added.
For more information on upcoming projects offered by each of the groups, search for Elizabethton Woman’s Civic Group, Elizabethton Lions Club and Carter County Proud on Facebook.