Beautifying Gonzales currently in progress by several community groups

The Gonzales Beautification Committee, in partnership with the Main Street Advisory Board and Gonzales Economic Development Corporation, have been busy making the city of Gonzales beautiful.

Gonzales Main Street Director Tiffany Hutchinson-Padilla recently talked about things that are happening in the city.

“We are refurbishing all of the handrails that you see in the downtown area, many of them have some peeling paint and rust, so the Streets Department and the city is working with us to remove those handrails, get them powdercoated, painted black and reinstalled. We're then going to work on the trash cans so the trash cans will get a similar upgrade,” Hutchinson-Padilla said.

The EDC approved funding to Main Street for the purchase of additional trash cans in the public squares.

Hutchinson-Padilla said Main Street will be ordering four foot benches to be put in the retail shopping area, so people can sit down in between store hopping.

“I'm also excited about the pressure washer that was just approved through the city, because we're going to be able to pressure wash the sidewalks, and it has a sanitation feature on it, so they can sanitize our playground equipment,” Hutchinson-Padilla said.

Hard work has been put into beautifying Gonzales and it has been several months to put things into place, Hutchinson-Padilla said.

“We are seeing additional community involvement with our push for the Keep Texas Beautiful affiliation. The citywide cleanup was helpful with that, but we want to keep that momentum going. We'll be working with the Streets Department to identify some of the street signs that need some attention or some replacement,” Hutchinson-Padilla said.

Keep Texas Beautiful is a non-profit group that inspires communities to keep them beautiful and clean.

“Once you become an affiliate, then you qualify for additional support and even possibly grant funds. So what we have to do is identify areas of need in our city, which the Beautification Committee has done by doing a litter survey, and then we submit that to Keep Texas Beautiful. We showed them before and after pictures of cleanups we had just out at the JB Wells. We had the 4-H Club out there. picking up litter just two days ago,” Hutchinson-Padilla said.

Businesses in Gonzales have been doing their part in helping to keep Gonzales beautiful and clean, and Hutchinson-Padilla appreciates their support.

“I think it just adds to the pride that we feel in the community and I think civic pride starts with what's right in front of you, whether that's the neighborhoods cleaning up their curbs, whether it's businesses washing their windows, or putting out plants. I think all of it adds to it,” Hutchinson-Padilla said.

“For instance, Grace Academy had their children paint rocks and lay down a rock snake over at the butterfly garden. That is super cute. We've had community members ask if they could adopt areas that they might be able to help with any cleanup and plantings,” Hutchinson-Padilla added.

One on the latest projects up next is launching a memorial bench program that’ll allow people to purchase a bench and put a plaque on it, Hutchinson-Padilla said.

“Those benches will be placed in several of the public squares, including Courthouse Square, the museum square and possibly our two downtown squares. Those benches will last between 10 to 15 even up to 20 years. There'll be metal benches, so we'll be replacing some of the broken wooden ones that you may have seen in Courthouse Square. That project will launch in the next several months,” Hutchinson-Padilla said.