AUBURN — Due to a budget crisis, DeKalb County government no longer can afford the thousands of flowers that brighten the courthouse lawn every summer.
Instead, county commissioners are setting up a fund to receive donations to pay for the colorful display.
Several people already have offered to help, commissioners said at their meeting Monday.
“I think we can get some money for flowers,” said Clint Stephens, the courthouse building maintenance supervisor who creates the floral settings with his wife, Jeanne.
One admirer of the flowers already has promised a $500 donation, Stephens said.
The Stephenses billed the county $7,227 for flowers they planted this year, Jeanne Stephens said.
“I think it’s money well-spent. People come to town to see them,” Clint Stephens said. “People really do like them. It’s nothing for people to call you or write you letters.”
The county’s funding covered flowers for the courthouse grounds and two other county office buildings on East 7th and 9th streets.
But the Stephenses’ flowers extend far beyond that. The Downtown Auburn Business Association pays for filling 38 planters on city streets. The city of Auburn pays for 84 hanging baskets along the streets, as well as flowers in Courtyard Park. The Auburn Garden Club also contributes.
Clint Stephens estimates he and his wife used 1,500 to 1,800 plants throughout the downtown, all grown in their two greenhouses. Petunias and begonias rank as the most common flowers in the displays.
Decorating the courthouse with flowers has been a 30-year project.
“We really got with it probably 15 years ago,” Clint Stephens said.
“As far as taking care of them, we just consider that part of our contract,” he said.
The Stephenses and their son-in-law, Larry Lane, work seven days a week tending the flowers and watering them with Clint Stephens’ special, secret formula.
“We enjoy doing it,” Clint Stephens said. “I couldn’t sleep at night if they didn’t look good.”