The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – You probably didn't know that the colorful, hanging baskets of flowers that brighten Dayton's Main Street all summer were nearly 30 years in the making.

Dayton Development Task Force members Scott Hudson and Betty Lou Crothers have dreamt of, discussed and planned for flower baskets downtown since the late 1980s, when the founding members of the task force worked to restored this city's Main Street.

"It's an idea that floated around for a long time," Hudson said. "But the idea never really went anywhere. We never had the dollars to put it together."

Then the state instituted a B&O tax incentive program to fund Main Street projects like those supported by the task force. In 2014, the Dayton Development Task Force received over $64,000 in these donations.

The Task Force, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, is eligible to receive money through the Washington Main Street Tax Incentive Program, which allows community businesses to donate a large percentage of their state Business and Occupation (B&O) tax or Public Utility Tax (PUT) specifically toward the economic development of downtown Dayton.

When business owners go online to the Department of Revenue website, they can click on "Credits and Tax Incentives" and pledge their B&O or PUT tax dollars to the task force and its many planned projects. Once the donation request is approved by the Department of Revenue, businesses are eligible for a tax credit the following year worth 75 percent of the contribution pledged.

"Once we got the B&O tax program going, we really wanted to do something to beautify Dayton," Hudson said. "It became a priority of mine to get the flowers."

Time was short though. The task force wanted the flowers installed before All Wheels Weekend in 2014. Hudson started researching hangers for the pots.

Jean McKeen, who sells flowers and plants behind Skyline Fluid & Power on East Main Street, had baskets of flowers. And Doug Hinds, with Pacific Power & Light, was willing to help hang all the pots.

"It made us feel good, to help beautify the town," Hudson said. "Dayton is such a beautiful town anyway."

After the first hurried year of hanging baskets, the task force had a better idea of what they wanted and the time to do it right. This year, they worked with McKeen again and arranged for bigger pots – 37 in all.

And McKeen refined a watering system that seems to be working well. The waterer pulls a large wagon with a water tank up and down Main Street. The tank is equipped with a pump. And each flower basket has a sub-irrigation system, said McKeen.

"Watering is hard," she said. "This year I researched on how to make it easier."

Flower waterers, hired and managed by the Dayton Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the task force, typically water twice each day during the scorching summer days – from about 5-7 a.m. each morning and another two hours at dusk, according to current waterer Lexus Ward.

With the sub-irrigation system, the waterer uses a modified watering wand, fixed with a spout rather than a shower head. The spout is inserted into an elbow pipe that pokes out of the top of each hanging basket. Water is added until it pours from the overflow pipe at the bottom of the basket. And voila! The plant wicks this water from the porous tank at the bottom of the pot all day long.

"It takes the guess work out of watering," McKeen said. "With the plants up in the air, in the wind and full sunlight all day, the flowers really take a beating."

Dian Ver Valen

Dayton grad Lexus Ward waters the Main Street flower baskets twice each day: from 5-7 a.m. and 8-10 p.m. The Dayton Development Task Force first installed the hanging baskets last year.

Each year McKeen and task force members have learned more about which plants do better than others in the baskets. They opted to go with a mix of flowers rather than a color pattern like that in Waitsburg.

The hanging baskets of flowers with sub-irrigation system cost approximately $95 each and have to be repurchased annually – although the pots, sub-irrigation system and high-quality hangers can be reused, McKeen said. Hudson confirmed that the task force budgets about $10,000 annually for the plants, supplies and staff. They typically use about $8,000 of that.

"The flowers are just absolutely beautiful," Hudson said. "It's absolutely amazing how many people come by when you're hanging the plants or helping to water then and comment on how gorgeous they are. Dayton should be proud. We should all be proud."

Currently the Chamber and Task Force are looking for a new waterer. The position will be open starting Aug. 19. To find out more call (509) 382-4825 or email chamber@historicdayton.com.