584 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



River Electric Light Co. to preserve natural beauty through con- 

 trolled planting and care of trees on a citywide basis also the 

 creation of a city nursery located on the city reservation with labor 

 furnished by the antipoverty program. 



Youth involvement is given high rating by the Commission. A 

 Youth for Community Improvement Committee has been organized 

 for the purpose of interesting entire neighborhoods to take part in 

 the expanding beautification program. 



Schoolchildren also have been asked to start a self-indoctrinating 

 program in beautification. The school committee presently is at- 

 tempting to devise an education venture, but, at one school, the young 

 students didn't bother to wait for official action. They read about 

 the program, voted immediate participation, collected over $100 in 

 two weeks, ordered plants and trees, and got them in the ground. 

 Their school already has a new look. 



CLARENCE E. MORAN. The Municipal Beautification Commission 

 of Charleston, W. Va., was established by ordinance of city council, 

 September 19, 1960, and charged with the duties of advising and 

 recommending to the mayor or council such programs or projects 

 as would in the opinion of the Commission improve the beauty and 

 general welfare of the city of Charleston. Mrs. Howard A. Swart is 

 chairman of this Commission and has asked me to submit this 

 statement. 



Each fiscal year since the date of its creation, this Commission has 

 been funded in the official budget of the city with suitable moneys 

 to carry out its duties. 



In the succeeding five years the Commission has directly executed 

 major landscaping and beautification projects along two of the city's 

 major roadways, and upon the grounds of two major public build- 

 ings. Numerous smaller landscaping treatments of public ways were 

 accomplished as projects of the Commission, or of local garden clubs 

 and service groups under the auspices of the Commission. Other 

 accomplishments included action by the Commission which led to 

 an ordinance to improve the appearance of parking lots, more effec- 

 tive enforcement of laws against derelict roadside buildings, and 

 participation in the forestalling of intrusive, noncompatible develop- 

 ments adjacent to important public buildings. 



The Commission, through a subcommittee on "The Cityscape," 

 produced a series of recommendations to appropriate public bodies 

 for control of visual ugliness such as billboards and junk car lots and 



