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The City of Webster City is a little greener today thanks to the efforts of the Rotary Club of Webster City.
On Saturday, an additional 69 trees and bushes were planted by dozens of members of the Rotary Club along Lewis Drive on the south side of Webster City.
The project was spearheaded by John Hawkins, a member of the Rotary Club and the mayor of Webster City, who had attended a session on applying for Rotary District Grants for the community.
The Webster City Rotary Club applied for a Rotary District 5970 Matching Grant for funds for the project. The money was used to purchase 69 trees and shrubs. Funds were also provided by the Climate Mitigation Fund through the Enhance Hamilton County Foundation.
According to Loween Getter, who has been a member of the Rotary Club for 34 years, the Rotary had started planting trees at the end of Des Moines St, a number of years ago, going as far as the housing creating a buffer for Highway 20. The stopping point then was where the last of the houses had been built.
Getter wasn't sure when the first plantings were completed. "It's been a couple of decades," she said.
Since then, a number of additional houses have been built since then along Lewis Drive. This current planting project continued from where the plantings had stopped then. The new plantings will continue further west along Lewis Dr.
The Rotary club members started working early Saturday morning.
"They started about 8:30 a.m. and it was at least 3 p.m. before the last man left," said Getter.
The plants and trees along Lewis Drive will be a good selection, she said.
"There's a nice variety," she said, "A lot of those are flowering trees that will be good to look at."
Their work Saturday extended the tree line much further west of those that were planted by Rotary several years ago.
Rotarians who worked on the project Saturday included Doug Bailey, Mark Dohms, Mark Ferguson, Loween Getter, Kathy Getting, John and Marcia Hawkins and his family, Tami and Taylor Hejlik, Ian Holcombe, Kirk McCollough, Gregg Olson and Jim Tesdahl.
Additional help came from Young Landscaping out of Des Moines. The crew dug holes, planted, mulched, wrapped, and staked each tree and shrub.
Fall is a hectic stretch for the Rotary Club of Webster City, as the annual Rotary Turkey Dinner is scheduled for Sunday, October 18. This popular annual event will be held at the Briggs Woods Conference Center, as a drive-through event. Tickets are $20 and available from any Rotary members.
Following that closely will be the World Polio Day, on October 24. Promoted as the World's Largest Polio Walk, the entire community is invited to participate with the local walk which begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Wilson Brewer Park. The walk will begin at 10 a.m., and donations towards the polio effort can be accepted at this event.
This is a coordinated effort to raise awareness and support the global effort to end polio world-wide. This is co-sponsored by the Van Diest Medical Center and the Rotary Club of Webster City