Tiff embroils Town Council on Henderson flower baskets

HENDERSON — A town beautification effort has turned ugly, with the bidding process spurring complaints and the supervisor storming out of a Town Council meeting in anger.

The fight is over flowers — a proposal by the Henderson Garden Club to hang 12 flower baskets in the hamlets of Henderson and Henderson Harbor. The Town Council awarded the job to Doctore's Landscaping and Greenhouse, Dexter, for $840, at its March 18 meeting, in a 4-0 vote that excluded Supervisor Clyde E. Moore.

Before that vote, Mr. Moore proposed having an FFA group from Belleville Henderson Central School plant baskets, which would cost about $20 each for materials, he said. But the Henderson Garden Club, which had offered to pick up and maintain the baskets, said it wouldn't do so if they were not professionally prepared. The club didn't want to be associated with poorly planted baskets, said Patricia Walker, Garden Club secretary and wife of Councilman Raymond A. Walker.

Mr. Moore said he offered to water the plants himself.

When it became clear the council would not support Mr. Moore's proposal, he left the meeting.

"I couldn't get a vote and that made me mad and I said, 'the hell with it,'" Mr. Moore said. "I left the meeting about 15 minutes before it was over. We're here to protect the taxpayer of the town, and you're not protecting the taxpayer by blowing money foolishly."

Mr. Walker said he believed the beautification measure had merit, and while Mr. Moore had at one point offered to water the plants on weekends, when the town Highway Department cannot, he later indicated he'd like the weekend maintenance done by a member of the town's cleaning staff. When Mr. Walker calculated the likely cost of those hours of labor, he said it would be more economical to follow the Garden Club's wishes by paying for the baskets, in exchange for the club's volunteer time to maintain them.

Councilman Steven C. Cote said he voted in favor of awarding the project to Doctore's because he was concerned about the issue of maintenance.

"Why invest the time and money in something that's not going to be taken care of?" he said.

Aside from the high tensions between council members over the baskets at the March 18 meeting, there also are questions about the bidding process. The town allowed the Garden Club to solicit bids.

Mrs. Walker said a club member delivered bid forms to three greenhouses: Doctore's, Hallett's Florist and Greenhouse, Adams, and Rhodes Greenhouses, Henderson, but only Doctore's responded with an offer.

An employee of Hallett's who declined to give a name said the shop decided not to bid on the offer because someone had told the business that it had to include weekend watering in the bid, even though that was not listed on the bid form in writing.

Jolene Rhodes, of Rhodes Greenhouses, said the same thing deterred her business from bidding.

Weekend watering is not a part of the agreement with Doctore's.

Mrs. Walker and Charlotte R. Richmond, town clerk and Garden Club member, said the Garden Club did not tell Rhodes and Hallett's that bids had to include weekend watering. Mrs. Walker said Gary L. Rhodes, who owns Rhodes Greenhouses with his wife, sent a letter to Hallett's telling the business that, and by the time the Garden Club corrected the misinformation, the shop no longer was interested in the job.