Augie Palumbo, owner of a landscaping company that has been mowing and maintaining some township medians at no charge, is promising greener grass and colorful flowers along a main road in Hillsborough Township, N.J. this spring.
"It's a heavily traveled area," said Palumbo, owner of All Decked Out, one of the two local landscaping companies participating in the project. "Most residents, at some time or another, drive through the high school area and I just want it to look nicer than it does right now."
Palumbo grew up in Hillsborough and he says he was always taught about the importance of giving back to the community.
So when the Hillsborough Township Department of Public Works launched a program last year to get landscapers to maintain road medians in town so township work crews don't have to, it seemed like a good chance to give back, Palumbo said.
Many landscapers already mow and maintain areas near the roads, making it easy for them to just cross the street to the mediuns. In exchange for the work, the landscapers get a little free advertising from the township, which places signs near their work.
Having the landscapers work on the mediuns saves the township money as well since they don't have to hire additional public employees, Public Works Director Buck Sixt said.
Just how much money is saved, though, Sixt said he couldn't tell because the pricing changes due to weather conditions. It depends, he said, on how much and how often the medians would need mowing.
Palumbo, who already works to take care of the area around Claremont Towers, said he has big plans for the medians near the high school.
"We're going to fertilize the lawn to get the grass to be greener and less full of weeds, and we're going to edge the curb lines to try and beautify it for the town," he said.
In December, Palumbo added mulch to the trees on the medians under his care. This spring, he hopes to add annual and perennial flowers to the display not only to showcase his work, but also to help beautify the area.
The new landscaping will begin after he gauges how the season's snowfall — and snow removal — will be, saying he'd like to avoid burying a newly planted shrubbery in the snow.
The effort to maintain the medians began last year as a pilot program covering medians from Amwell Road to Triangle Road. Sixt said he hopes to expand the program to cover more of the township.
"It seemed to make sense to entice landscapers to do the medians since many of them are already working there," Sixt said. "In return for their services, we duplicate and manufacture their company's logo and place the sign on either side of the area they maintain."
He added that the township supplies both the signs and mulch free of charge. The mulch comes from brush that residents bring in each year from their yards.
Already, Palumbo has seen results from the sign posted in his maintenance areas and has received several calls from people interested in hiring him for various landscaping projects.
"The township has been very good with dealing with us," Palumbo said. "It's been beneficial in terms of business as well as self-gratification that I've done my part in town to help keep things looking good."
Sixt said he hopes more landscapers will express an interest in helping with the project. Currently, only All Decked Out and Rainfall Landscaping are involved. By starting to advertise the project earlier in the year, before landscapers get busy with their other jobs, he hopes to involve more landscapers to help maintain more mediuns throughout the township.
"It seemed to work really well last year and we want to continue that this year," he said. "The idea is that (the landscapers) can showcase what they do, so it helps the company and at the same time helps the town."
