Some may have noticed a couple of areas in town have been “spruced up” recently, including the eye of the whale in the Whale Park, or the planting bed below the Humane Society Thrift Shop sign. The brush has been cleared away, new topsoil has been placed, and beautiful annual flowers have been planted.

These projects have been done completely for free by a pair of benefactors looking to spruce up the town, Mike Tomko and Martha Cowdery.

“We're just doing what needs to be done,” Tomko said. “Why wouldn't you want to make your place shine?”

According to Tomko, he and Cowdery were walking downtown a couple of weeks ago when they noticed there weren't any annuals planted in the eye of the whale at Whale Park.

“One of the things we so love about Boothbay Harbor is the explosion of flowers, flower boxes, fields of flowers, and all the great colors around Boothbay Harbor, so we were sad to see the park missing some color,” Tomko said.

After placing a called to Town Manager Tom Woodin to ask permission, Cowdery paid a visit to North of the Border and Boothbay Region Greenhouses for petunias and geraniums, along with some other flowers.

“With Martha's mother, Harriet, supervising our efforts, we cleaned out the planter, added fresh topsoil, and arranged the annuals and hopefully gave the whale a pretty blue eye with lots of contrasting color,” Tomko said.

They were so pleased by the results that they started looking for other places to spruce up. Where will they strike next? Keep watching www.boothbayregister.com for updates.