Bright and early Saturday morning (Oct. 29) the FFA, along with several city employees, employees from Kohl's Department Store, and Lemoore Rotarians gathered on a rain-induced perfect day to put the finishing touches on the long-awaited plan to replace the landscaping in front of Lemoore City Hall of Fox Street.

Ron King, (center) a former LHS ag instructor, accepts a plaque from the city and students for his work on the city hall landscaping project.

Photo courtesy Matt Moreno

Thanks to the efforts of the local high school students, city employees, and their supervisors, gone is the water-hogging grass, and instead has been replaced with drought tolerant trees and shrubs. Included in the new design are gravel trails and a couple of truck loads of bark.

“This project has been in the works for a couple of years,” said City of Lemoore Community Services Director Jason Glick, on hand Saturday morning to help oversee the nearly two-year long project. “Mr. (Ron) King is a retired Lemoore High School teacher, and he put a plan together for a dry landscape project along with some students he worked with who had previously graduated.”

Glick said King spent several hours putting the plan together which has been in the works for the past couple of years – and Saturday was the day it all came together – with a lot of help from some committed LHS students.

“This is the final,” said Glick. “It’s a beautification measure and a dry landscape. We took out the other irrigation system so we’re using a drip irrigation system now. “

This drone photo was taken by local photographer Jesus Garcia. Garcia is also president of the Rotary Club, which helped with the new landscaping at city hall.

Photo by Jesus Garcia, Newman Garcia Studio

Glick gives most of the credit for the project to King for his design and Matt Moreno for getting the FFA involved. “It was originally designed by Lemoore High School students. We wanted to keep them a part of this project. Matt (Moreno) was able to get some students together to help us out.”

Glick said the project cost the city between $4,000 to $5,000 cost to do the work.

Moreno was equally enthusiastic about the project. “We received a phone call from (City Manager) Andi Welsh about a year and a half ago,” he said, “and Mr. King and I came here and had a couple of meetings with her to discuss the plan. It was Mr. King who kind of put the whole thing together.”

Brandon Hillier and Tristan Rowell are busy planting a shrub in front of Lemoore City Hall.

Moreno said he asked King to put together the plan. “I kind of pawned it off on him, since he’s an OH (ornamental horticulture) guy, this is his kind of passion,” said Moreno. “He came out a handful of times on his own and measured every square inch, put it on auto cad (a computer design program) and then came up with different drought-tolerant plants with easy maintenance and low water. He drew it up and that’s the plan that the city’s using today.”

King was there in the morning to get the project started. The Lemoore High School FFA and city gave him a plaque. He will also be honored at a future city council meeting.