Huntington Town invites businesses, residents to beautify public properties

Huntington residents wishing to help beautify the town will now have a chance.

Town officials are promoting its Adopt-a-Corner beautification program to help residents show pride in the community.

The program allows businesses, organizations and residents to adopt and then beautify and maintain a select piece of public property for one year, with the option to renew for an additional year.

Supervisor Chad Lupinacci said the program is a quality of life initiative, that offers a creative outlet for community stakeholders to display their pride in Huntington.

“It’s also a cost savings for the town because the entity pays for the installation and maintenance of the corner, so it doesn’t have an impact on our budget,” Lupinacci said. “You can adopt and maintain a corner property or an intersection and other public rights-of-way or even multiple locations.”

The town attorney’s office and department of general services have created a process for the required paperwork and logistics so potential participants can choose from a list of available locations maintained by the general services department, Lupinacci said.

“The department will review and give final approval on Adopt-a-Corner applications, proposals for landscape design and signage at the adopted location,” Lupinacci said.

The first business to participate in the program is ARS Landscape & Design. The Huntington based-company planted its first Adopt-a-Corner installation of flowers and shrubs at the Prime Avenue entrance to Heckscher Park in September 2019. It added a second installation that was recently unveiled at the Main Street and Prime Avenue corner entrance to the park.

Andrew Steinmueller, president of ARS Landscape & Design and a Huntington native, said he hopes that by planting these gardens he can spread a little joy and hope for what tomorrow may bring, especially during this uncertain time because of the pandemic.

He said he selected Heckscher Park because he has many fond memories enjoying the park.

“I spent a lot of time in the park with Boy Scouts, fishing derby, sledding,” he said. “It’s a great place and this was a chance to make it more beautiful, my way of giving back.”

Lupinacci sponsored the town board resolution creating the Adopt-a-Corner program in October 2018 after Andre Sorrentino, the town’s director of general services, approached him with the idea to involve the greater Huntington community in beautification projects across the town.

Town Board member Ed Smyth, whose law office is across the street from Heckscher and views Steinmueller’s installations daily, said there is another perk with the program.

“The resident or business which adopts a corner may place a small plaque with their name or dedicate the corner in honor of someone,” he said.

 Steinmueller said he would pass the park all the time and wondered how he could help it look as nice as possible and that’s when he reached out to the town.

 “There are a lot of areas, triangles and corners that could benefit from the program,” he said. “It’s a nice way for a business to make a donation while helping to make Huntington nicer and more beautiful.”