DELHI — A huge bit ate through the blacktop at the edge of Domion's Great American parking lot Thursday morning, as the Delhi Beautification Committee launched its latest project.

Laura Glassman, garden designer and president of the Delhi Beautification Committee, and Jeffrey Hartt, a landscape architect who also serves on the committee, oversaw a crew of more than 25 volunteers who were transforming one side of Bridge Street.

Hartt said 11 flowering pear trees and 20 other street trees are being planted along the edge of the parking lot. The project also includes installing a wood rail fence to protect the trees, concrete block paved planters and new sidewalk and curbing along one section of the street.

Glassman said the committee began planning the $34,000 project last winter. Funding was provided through a $11,538 Catskill Watershed Corp. Fund for the Future Grant, $5,000 from the O'Connor Foundation and the rest in in-kind services. Delaware Bulldozing donated the topsoil.

Volunteers from AmeriCorps and students from the State University College of Technology at Delhi's plant science and golf course management classes braved soaring summer-like temperatures to help dig the holes and install the fence posts and trees.

Jennifer Allen, 27, an AmeriCorps volunteer from Maryland, was sitting on a curb, taking a break from the exhausting heat.

"They asked all of us to come and help with this project," said Allen, who usually works on programming in schools. "We are going to be working on laying the bricks and stuff later."

Birgitta Brophy, landscape contracting instructor at Delhi Tech, was on hand to help out as was Stephan Weisenburger, a local cabinetmaker who was directing the installation of the rail fence.

"This is supposed to be a two-day project and we are going to try our best to get it done in that time frame," said Glassman, looking doubtful.

The scene was chaotic as dump trucks maneuvered around the parking lot with loads of soil, dodging volunteers armed with shovels, picks and wheelbarrows, the normal flow of traffic from shoppers continued unabated.

Glassman was unperturbed, noting that the Beautification Program already has another project on the back burner. She didn't want to divulge details until funding was in place, but she was more than willing to list the group's past successes.

The committee installed Victorian benches along Delhi's Main Street and is in the midst of a window box planter program in which the group will provide the materials to build the planters. AmeriCorps will build the planters, which will then be filled with flowers and installed for participating merchants.

"Hopefully, the merchants will water the plants," Glassman said.

Other beautification projects have included the development of Bridgeside Park and the maintenance of several smaller parks around the village. It also does the annual planting around the gazebo in Courthouse Square and was responsible for the holiday decorations that adorned Main Street last year.

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Patricia Breakey can be reached at (607) 746-2894 or at pbreakey@thedailystar.com.