Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Springdale eyes downtown landscaping
SPRINGDALE — Not everything will come up roses in Springdale.
Heather Schneider, the city’s horticulturist, said spring will bring daffodils and alliums. Schneider and a city crew worked Friday to plant 800 bulbs on Emma Avenue as the city works to beautify the downtown district.
City leaders say a pleasing place can support economic development both in terms of growing businesses and customers.
Curb appeal is important to her business, said Joy Parker, owner of Cellar Door Antiques on Emma. Tall trees can block the view of her shop windows, but flowers draw attention, she said.
“It’s the first impression,” said Euva Phillips, a regional manager for Arvest Bank.
“A city that is beautiful is
a city that is loved,” said Jill Dabbs, executive director of the Downtown Springdale Alliance. “And it’s really important that we love our place.”
Vivi Haney, a member of the Planning Commission, said the young people she has spoken with tell her the way a community looks is part of what leads them to reside in that community.
When a business considers a new location, owners also look around, Dabbs said.
“They know if public domain is doing their part to maintain the area, they can keep it vital,” she said. “If you think about going to downtown to spend your time and money, shop, eat in restaurants, you’re more likely to go there if it looks nice.”
But the city does most of the heavy work for the beautification effort.
The 2020 city budget includes roughly $200,000 for landscaping. This includes everything from irrigation systems, to plants and mulch to salaries for the horticulturist, gardener and intern horticulture students from the University of Arkansas, Bill Baldwin, the city’s director of engineering and public works, explained.
“The payback can be the attitude of the residents and development,” Mayor Doug Sprouse said. “Cities attract businesses and residents who want to keep seeing things grow.”
Sprouse said $200,000 is as much as the city can spend right now.
“We are on a tight budget. I wish we could do more.”
Council members Colby Fulfer, Brian Powell and Mike Overton deferred comment on the landscaping budget for more study overall of the proposed budget.
Previously, the landscaping expenses were lumped in with the city’s general construction fund, and it was difficult to determine actual costs. Baldwin created a landscaping division, with costs included as line items in the 2020 budget.
“This is the first time we’ve done this,” Baldwin said. “Some of these amounts are our best guesses. We will adjust them in next year’s budget.”
He said some will be onetime costs.
Other entities in the city contribute what they can to the landscape.
The Advertising and Promotion Commission recently purchased two monument-style welcome signs, which will greet visitors as they come into the city on U.S. 412, said Bill Rogers, vice president of communications and special projects for the Springdale Chamber of Commerce.
One sign will sit on the west side of Springdale, and the other on the east, Rogers continued. Next year, the commission will plant two more signs at the south and north entrances of the city on Thompson Street.
Each sign costs $12,658, Rogers said.
The chamber also contracts for the maintenance of the landscaped areas in Springdale at Interstate 49 and Sunset Avenue, Rogers added.
DIGGING IN
Baldwin asked for an emphasis for Emma on perennials and natives, plants requiring little maintenance and plants that are drought-tolerant, he said.
The downtown landscaping program got started in July without a budget, Baldwin said. Schneider worked for the city as an intern horticulturist while earning her degree. She was hired full time this summer.
Things got dirty when Schneider and city workers got to digging into the job.
“We found about 12 different irrigation systems, and only one was working,” Baldwin said of Emma Avenue. “And I hate to see hoses running across Emma, and then a worker standing on the corner watering a tree.” He said no plants will be placed until the irrigation system in that area works.
Workers prepared the beds for planting on only two blocks of Emma before the season ended, Baldwin said.
He said the city also worked with the University of Arkansas’ Cooperative Extension Service and the state’s urban forestry specialist to evaluate every tree along Emma. Many trees were replaced.
Most of them were diseased or damaged from being hit by big pickup beds as a drivers parked along the street, he said. Others were just too big to thrive in the small patch of dirt.
Large concrete planters will grace intersections not suitable for trees, Baldwin said. The entrance to downtown at the intersection of West Emma Avenue and North Thompson Street also will receive planters.
Schneider hopes to use these to plant some annuals and other varieties according to the season — perhaps some begonias, a Springdale favorite.
Springdale established a beautification foundation in the late 1990s, to which many of the city’s leaders donated time and money.
“Downtown had a tradition of begonias in the summer and pansies in the winter,” Dabbs said. “But we are going away from that.”
Schneider will overplant the beds on Emma, she said. Landscaping takes about three years to become lush and fill the space, but the city doesn’t want to wait.
“We don’t like to see mulch,” Baldwin said.
When the plants grow and the beds become crowded, Schneider said she will move some of the plants to other areas in the city.
ON THE HORIZON
Dabbs said the city also needs to turn its attention to the corridors bringing people to downtown, Sunset Avenue and North Thompson Street.
“These are gateways to our downtown area,” she said. “Access from the interstate needs to be aesthetically pleasing.”
Kevin Parsley, chairman of the Planning Commission, thinks everyone should be responsible for the beautification of the city and the region.
“I don’t know the extent of it. I don’t know what that will look like,” he said. “Will it be more collaboration versus a mandated approach?”
Dabbs suggested those interested in the revitalization on Emma might plan volunteer work days to help maintain the landscape.
“Then they will have a buy in, an impact on development,” Dabbs said. “Everything is better when we all have skin in the game.”
“As a business owner, it never seems fast enough,” Parker said. “But downtown didn’t go away overnight.”