Community members beautify downtown

Community members beautify downtown

Dozens of volunteers donned work gloves to plant, paint, shovel and make downtown Hutto shine for the upcoming festival and holiday season on Friday, Oct. 6. Members of the public joined representatives from United Way for Austin, the Keep Hutto Beautiful Foundation, Hutto Farmers Market and City Hall employees in the clean-up effort.

“Day of Caring is an annual event for the United Way, and the city sort of piggybacks onto it to make it even bigger and more local,” said Allison Strupeck, director of communications. “The time and caring and energy that these volunteers gave was priceless.”

Workers planted more than 70 native flower plants at intersections, picked up trash, removed rocks from old planting areas and participated in painting a community mural.

“We had volunteers from the offices of County Commissioner Russ Boles, State Representative Caroline Harris, the Hutto Chamber of Commerce, Hutto Independent School District, the Historic Preservation Commission and interested community members. We had a nice mix today,” said Kristi Barnes, community outreach and programs manager.

“It really goes to show how much our community really cares about the heart of Hutto in downtown.”

Downtown business owner Felix Jaimes, who heads creative agency Forty4 Designs, created the floral design for the community mural. He mixed paints and helped volunteers as they worked on the art piece.

“I chose specifically these flowers for the mural because of the bright colors they have. They are super bold, which is great for a community project, and you can see it from far away,” he said. He added that the floral design was intended to reflect the native flowers planted during the event.

The city took the opportunity to set up an educational booth to inform volunteers about the importance of composting and storm water management at the event. Mindy McDonough, the City’s regulatory compliance manager, said the topics are integral to keeping Hutto beautiful.

“Composting helps with erosion so we don’t lose sediment but it also helps with nutrient loading so we don’t have to use so many chemicals. Everything is integrated,” she said. “Establishing plants helps capture rainwater in the ground so there’s not as much runoff and it’s less likely to pick up contaminants. If we can be more mindful, we can have a larger impact collectively to keep our local waterways safe for human health and recreational use.”

“I think it’s great for everyone to come out to help and learn more about composting, wastewater and cleaning up the community,” Jaimes said. “Hutto is a small town, but you see a lot of people come out here so it’s nice to have it clean and presentable. It makes you feel welcome.”