Dressing up the Village of Rockville Centre for fall

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Pops of orange, red and yellow can be seen around downtown Rockville Centre, as business owners and community members have pitched in to beautify the village.

During the first week of October, several businesses sponsored the decorating of lampposts down N. Park Avenue, Front Street, N. Village Avenue and College Place. Visitors and villagers will now see large cornstalks with big orange bows lining the streets on these new lampposts.

It began when Jeannine Palladino, owner of Jeannine’s Gifts on N. Park Avenue, and Debbie Whitfield, owner of Art Flowers & Gift Shoppe on N. Village Avenue, brainstormed ways to beautify the village.

“It brings the Rockville Centre shopping district closer together,” Whitfield said. “This village is so homey and we need to bring some of that warm, village effect.”

“We’ve been in town for 29 years,” she continued, “and it’s such a nice, tight knit village. We had to take it to the next level, bring that to the streets.”

The storeowners reached out to other businesses. Now, George Martin, Front Street Bakery, Front Street Pizza, Chadwick’s and the Durnan Group have all sponsored corn stalk decorations on their respective blocks.

“They look beautiful,” Deputy Mayor Kathy Baxley said at the Oct. 7 Village Board of Trustees meeting, thanking the businesses.

She also noted that Gwynne Feiner, co-director of the Village Department of Public Works, and local high school students recently pitched in to plant mums outside village hall.