Last Thursday two judges from the provincial Communities in Bloom competition arrived in Strathmore.
Throughout the day the judges were given a tour of the municipality and got to see the best of the best in Strathmore.
Strathmore Communities in Bloom Committee President Rob Pirie said he believes the judging went very well. He explained that for their visit, the local Communities in Bloom committee organized a tour with guest speakers. They began with a visit to the Strathmore Station Gardens.
“We had people from FCSS and we had people from the Storefront School talking about how those beds are making a difference to the town to the school system,” he said. The judges then visited Waste Management where they were greeted by Cody Huxted and learned about recycling and composting.
There was a visit to the solar farm where the representative Brad spoke about their sustainability and use of sheep in the project.
“We went to the old CPR farm where Bruce Klaiber talked about the history of the CPR and the demonstration farm and his plan for the Legacy Farm will be will be,” said Pirie.
There was a visit to the Strathmore High School greenhouse with Cole Hintz and a visit to the mural at Ecole Brentwood Elementary School before returning to the Vault Cultural Collective.
“In the evening once again we celebrated with the community with all the various groups that Communities in Bloom has partnered with over the last number of years,” he explained.
Pirie noted that throughout the day they were joined by representatives from Fortis Alberta who are major sponsors of the provincial Communities in Bloom program and various projects in town..
“They were absolutely ecstatic with the tour. And of course, because they were not judging expressed at lunch, for example, how impressed they were with the community. How impressed they were with the funds that they had granted to various organizations and projects and how they were being used.”
Personally, he said he thought the town looked outstanding.
“You have to give credit to the Operation staff and the Parks staff and I think they did an excellent job. People like Operations Manager Donna McCallum and Parks Supervisor Deana Connington had done just a fantastic job of making sure everything was shipshape, and of course, Communities in Bloom is very fortunate that we've always had the support of Mayor and Council,” he said. “They displayed that in showing up on the welcome to the judges on Thursday morning and then evening as well.”
Now the local committee will have to wait until October to find out how they scored and the results of the competition.
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Fri, Apr 26, 4:30 PM
