Lewes post office landscapers prep for big day

More than a dozen Lewes In Bloom volunteers dug holes, cut roots and planted greenery around the Lewes post office building in preparation for a 100th anniversary celebration of the building’s completion.

Kevin McBride supervised the work Oct. 16, giving Preserve Our Post Office - POP - volunteers professional advice about how to do it.

“Do it like this,” McBride said, as he plunged a shovel several times deep into soil around a root-bound tree just out of a pot.

McBride, a landscape architect, owns Lewes-based Renaissance Design Studio. He and several area business owners answered Lewes resident Bruce Chandler’s call to help with improving landscaping around the post office.

“Now you can see it,” Chandler said after the Cisco’s Tree Service crew cut down scraggly trees and shrubbery, raked up dead leaves and sticks, and hauled them away.

Chandler said he started the project because the post office building’s architecture should be seen and appreciated by the hundreds of people who enter the building daily.

The public must agree. So far, the effort has taken in more than $18,000 in donations, Chandler said.

Tree service owner Tim Cisco, McBride, and other businesses provided $16,000 worth of services free of charge or at reduced costs. Chandler said Valery and Rick Cordrey, owners of East Coast Garden Center, provided plantings at a deep discount. Jack Lingo Realtor Lewes Office contributed $1,000. Rich Bell, owner of Clean Cut Interlocking Pavers, removed tree stumps, roots and stones, and installed stone edging around the site.

Everyone involved with the project and the public is invited to celebrate the post office’s 100th birthday at 8 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 19, at the post office.