Imperial Valley press., 1927-08-30
WHAT THEY TELL NQUIRING REPORTER
NEWS OF THE PUBLIC ON SERIOUS AND NEARsERIous
TOPICS

The Inquiring Reporter assumed
the duties of an. unofficial and self
appointed Civic Retirement Society
for FL Centre last night, when she
appeared on the streets with the
question:
How, in your opinion, can 81
Centre be made a more beautiful
city?''
THAT 5 easy.' exclaimed Phil
McCrillis. operator for the Southern
Pacific railroad company, "Have Il
big sale on paint, and then pass a
city ordinance compelling every
body to eXpend a certain amount of
elbow grease applying it. I would
MT suggest planting lot of flow
ers because they are hard to raise
and an ill-kept and half dead gar
den looks as bad, or worse, than
none mt all-but there 5 no excuse
for lack of paint. I've been house
hunting for a. week and if you could
just know the places that L have
looked at-honest-as much as L
like FL Centre l think it ought to
be ashamed of itself.
Mrs. Ruth Hendley. who lives on
West Sixth Street, made sweeping
statement about yards.
Il came from a little town in the
middle west she said. "It WASH t
as big as FL Centre. and we didn I
have nearly as nice Il business see
tion-but strangers always remark
ed on the beauty of the town be-
cause ali the homes were SO well
cared for and the yards Were so
lovely. Untrimmed trees and un-
cut grass is an eve sore and spoiis
the appearance of any community.
II seems so unnecessary, too. |
think if all The people would join
together and lean up their yards
at the same time We would see
wonderful change in the looks OF
our city.
~ think FL Centre has already
taken the most important step to-
ward making this city beautiful -
said L. o. Harrington, stationery en-
gineer II refer to the steps taken
toward the removal of the unsightly
canal that runs along Eighth Street.
With that ont of the way the ap-
proach to the city from the west
will be greatly improved and FL
Centre will already he beautified
at least so per cent.
An old resident who refused TO
give his name also refused to ad-
nit that FL Centre needed beauti-
fying.
ITS the best looking town in
the valley now." he declared.
"When ! first came here people
lived mostly in tent houses. Now
they have nice homes, and we have
wide paved streets and good build
ings in the business section. j sup
pose we might cut down few weeds
here and there-but that s nothing
very important. We re getting a
lolt of new buildings and | think
we re coming along all right as we
are.
d" just wait until our women folks
get baeki' one 'summer batche-
lor' vouchsafed. "They'll beautify
this old town all right-and | don
mean maybel"
Duke johnson, of JOhnson-Groene
Co. was just locking up the store
for the night when the reporter
questioned him.
. There are a good many ways 10
beautify a city, he said thought
fully. "Some entail the expenditure
of large sums of money while others
require merely work. j think if we
could eliminate some of the un-
slightly thiHgs along the approaches
to Fl Cen-ro we would give strang-
ers a much better Impression of the
town-and planting more trees al
WAYS means adding 10 the beauty of
a place. Making beautiful parks,
or erecting a civic center or any
thing of that sort costs money-but
taking care of our yards and WELD
ing the paint brush is chiefly a
question of work. ! think we could
at least do that even if we leave
the more expensive things until q
later cate. q"
"Suend little money on these
alleged parks of yours said Sam
Lapine. trayeling salesman. Look
at the court house yard-it' s beau
tiful. The, flowers and shrubs
would dp credit to any park in Cali
fornia. Then just take a slant
acress the. street Strangers are
apt to Judge a town By it, parks