A little thing like getting hit by a car isn’t going to stop
Margaret Johnston from planting flowers in downtown Morgan
Hill.
Morgan Hill – A little thing like getting hit by a car isn’t going to stop Margaret Johnston from planting flowers in downtown Morgan Hill.
But the slow grind of bureaucracy is another matter.
After nine years of faithful tending, the 80-year-old native of Morgan Hill said she and her crew of 50 volunteers have let flowers wilt along Monterey Street to allow city officials time to install a new irrigation system. But as that project drags on due to design complications, Johnston is beginning to hear complaints from residents accustomed to a Monterey Street bursting with color.
“There are 90 planters and we’ve kept them (brimming with) flowers all these years,” said Johnston, who created the Adopt-A-Planter program in the late ’90s. “People are beginning to ask now what happened to all the flowers.”
Maintenance is a year-round job, according to Johnston, who said volunteers stopped replanting four months ago due to city plans to remove dead trees and install a drip irrigation system along Monterey Street, between Dunne and Main avenues. Officials originally hoped to complete the project June 30, but now say work will not be complete until late September or early October.
“Flowers and trees require different amounts of water and that’s been a complication,” said city spokesman Brian Stott, who lauded Johnston’s efforts and chalked up delays to the complexity of the project. City officials believe that “pop-up” sprinklers are responsible for the decline of Honey Locust trees already planted along the street, and officials are now designing an irrigation system to accommodate both trees and flowers.
Stott said final designs on the $10,000 project are expected to arrive at city hall today, with the bidding and installation process requiring a few more months more.
Johnston, who was hit by a car in March while watering some of the downtown flowers, said she plans to remain involved in the program despite some back pain. She even sees the virtue of the new irrigation system, which will help the city conserve water. But she said volunteers will be reluctant to resume their work if it means the flowers will be torn up. So instead of planting Marigolds, Zinnias and other summer favorites, Johnston said she will remove old bulbs and get planters ready for when the city completes its work.
“I’ve taken pride all these years to really have them look nice,” she said of the planters. “It really has made the downtown look good.”
