One of the village of Potsdam's unique attributes is that it looks for ways to involve its residents in projects that will benefit the entire community. For the third year in a row, 19 people volunteered to help make downtown Potsdam a more visually attractive and pleasant place to work, live or visit.

This year, the village provided $800 to purchase flowers, fertilizer and mulch that our volunteers planted in downtown. The result is amazing. Each of the volunteers put their individual signatures on 18 small flower gardens and they look great.

Potsdam counts on volunteers to make local government work. Our Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, the airport committee and the joint recreation board all provide valuable services to the community and are entirely dependent on dedicated volunteers. Our volunteer gardeners make Potsdam a desirable place to live or visit. On behalf of the village board of trustees, I wish to extend our sincere gratitude to them for their willingness to share their gardening skills with the community.

For more information on the downtown gardening program, please contact the Potsdam Planning and Development Office at 265-1670.

Ron Tischler

Potsdam

The writer is the mayor of Potsdam.