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Starbuck Flowers Get An Early Morning Feeding
Pope County Tribune - Starbuck Times
Written by Chad Koenen - Starbuck Times New Editor   
Wednesday, 19 August 2009 06:48

Lars Johnson is an early riser.


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Lars Johnson waters some flowers outside of Starbuck City Hall recently. The soon-to-be junior at MAHS has been watering the flowers around the downtown area all summer long.
Each morning this summer, except for just two-days, Johnson hits the streets of Starbuck with a watering wand in hand. In order to miss the traffic and cars parked along main street, Johnson begins watering each of the 38-hanging and 10-black flower baskets set up by the Starbuck Beautification Committee at 6 a.m. The only time he hasn't watered flowers were two-days in which a late night rain didn't warrant more watering in the morning.

Starbuck Beautification Committee Member Lori Billehus said this is the first time she knows that a person has watered the flowers in the morning. Billehus said people who water the beautification committee flowers are given a choice of watering early in the morning or at night to avoid traffic and cars parked downtown. In the past, Billehus said workers have typically chose to water at night, rather than getting up early in the morning.

Johnson said the entire job of watering the flowers takes approximately 45-minutes to one hour and estimated he typically goes through 60-80 gallons of water a day.

He said he chose to water in the morning because he was an early riser anyway. During the school year, he typically gets up around 5:45 a.m. so getting up to water flowers isn't too much of a stretch.

This is the ninth year that the Starbuck Beautification Committee has put up flowers in the downtown area. Billehus said the flowers and subsequent costs with maintaining the flowers is paid for by donations from private individuals and civic organizations.