WILTON – Flowers on the steep banks around the Recycling Center are for more than just beauty, although they are part of a plan to make the center more attractive.

“They will stabilize the banks and keep sediment out of storm drains and from running into the riv-er, Samantha Beck said on Thursday afternoon, July 29, in the middle of planting a variety of do-nated hardy perennial flowers. She is a summer intern with the town’s stormwater mitigation pro-gram.

As part of that program, Beck recently sent out a call to the five towns which use the center asking for flowers and volunteers to plant them. Last week she got both. On Thursday afternoon, July 29, they gathered for a second day of planting. Buckets of flowers were donated by many residents including Wilton gardeners Gail Proctor and Nikki Andrews.

The process was easy, one volunteer said of working on a bank cleared of brush earlier this spring and now covered with grass and a few aggressive weeds. “Pull out a weed and plant a flower in the hole.”

Beck said the stormwater program includes marking all the drains along the streets “and finding where they end at the river, to see where the water goes.”

They are sampling the water quality in the Souhegan River in cooperation with the Souhegan Wa-tershed Association and other friends of the river. The water samples were tested at the Milford Wastewater Plant.

“We tested by the Horseshoe and at the Riverwalk” near the Wilton House of Pizza. “Quality at The Horseshoe was great,” she said, “at the Riverwalk not so good, the e-coli count was a little high and we have to find out why.” The WHOP is on Stony Brook and the problem could be up-stream.

The Recycling Center is near the bank of the Souhegan River and is the oldest such facility in the state. The area is monitored by the state and, so far, no contamination of the river has been detected. The cleanup plan includes the river bank.

The stormwater mitigation program is state-mandated, began several years ago, includes all of the downtown area, and is on-going.

Recycling Center Manager Carol Burgess began her beautification project last year.

“If it is attractive, more people will come,” she said, hoping to increase the usage.

The area around the sign at the entry to the facility was cleared of weeds and rocks and planted by volunteers Karen Parsons and her son Stephen Parsons, Jr., of Wilton. The younger Parsons has also volunteered to do all the weed whacking around the center for the summer.

“It all looks good,” Beck said, happy with the results.