The Citrus Heights City Council on Thursday issued a proclamation recognizing resident Ron Ferns for decades of work planting flowers and maintaining a section of Auburn Boulevard near Costco, as well as for volunteer work at a nearby nature preserve.
“Ron has devoted countless hours to keeping the streets of Citrus Heights clean and planting flowers along Auburn Boulevard to beautify the city,” Mayor Steve Miller said during the meeting, commending Ferns for his good deeds. “He’s enthusiastically volunteered his time maintaining the Stock Ranch Nature Preserve and he’s given back to the community for all residents to enjoy.
Along with many other passers-by, Miller said “for years” he had wondered who was planting the flowers along the sound wall on Auburn Boulevard, between San Tomas Drive and Cobalt Way.
See a photo of Ferns’ flowers: Meet the man who’s beautifying Auburn Blvd one flower at a time
In accepting the proclamation, Ferns deflected some of the praise to another resident, Forrest Allen, for being “instrumental in getting the ball rolling” and helping with future plans to get a mural painted on the wall within the next year. “So you can look forward to maybe seeing a mural on that wall one of these days,” he said
Thursday’s proclamation followed an article published in The Sentinel last month about Ferns’ decades of volunteer work up-keeping a 200-yard strip of the boulevard.
After moving to Citrus Heights with his wife in 1974, Ferns started working on beautifying the section of Auburn Boulevard near his home by first cleaning up garbage — from old tires to Christmas trees — littering the side of the road. He later began planting flowers, which now bloom along the stretch — except during hot summer months when they die back.
“The thing that I enjoy the most is when the people come by and say how much they appreciate it,” Ferns, 78, previously told The Sentinel. “That’s the reward. The Lord gave me the ability — the green thumb — and so I’m just expanding that. I’m trying to do what I can to enhance the beauty of the city.”
The Sentinel’s interview with Ferns last month can be read here: Meet the man who’s beautifying Auburn Blvd one flower at a time
