Morinville gets a Blooming 4

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Public Works Operations Manager Donald Fairweather poses with the certificate Morinville received for their 4 Bloom standing. – Lucie Roy Photo

by Lucie Roy

Morinville received four out of a possible five blooms in the in the Friends-Evaluated Category of Communities in Bloom Alberta Provincial Edition. Four Blooms represents a score of 73 to 81 percent in scoring. Morinville received 78.3 percent.

Public Works Operations Manager Donald Fairweather said the town has not been involved in the Communities in Bloom for several years but felt it was a good program to be a part of. The Friends Non-Competitive category was a way for Morinville to participate without the pressure of competition. Morinville also opted to participate with an evaluation.

The evaluation is based on eight criteria, divided into 6 sections and assessing four sectors of the community. The six sections are tidiness, environmental action, heritage conservation, urban forestry, landscape and floral displays. Morinville scored highest in the Landscape category with 160.50 points out of a possible 200, seconded by floral displays and two points behind the urban forestry and tied for tidiness, environmental and heritage conservation.

Fairweather said this was a means of testing the water. They will now use the evaluation to give them pointers of what is good and what needs improving for next year.

The four sectors of the community evaluated were municipal, business and institutions, residential and community involvement. Fairweather would like to see more community involvement next year when they go competitive.

This year included the Morinville Community Gardens, Morinville Community Cultural Centre and Urban Agriculture High School Program. There are several clubs in town that have an interest in one or more parts of the town owned facilities. The Lions Club and Rotary Club have a park which they helped develop and have added to it and have both done planting. The town donated land to the Community Gardens in 2012 and this group has been active in growing vegetables. NAIT has donated native plants and along with the town and locals schools has had several planting days since 2013 to establish these along Little Egg Creek. The town also hosts an annual Best Garden competition and in the winter the Best snowman award. The town continued with the Incredible Edible theme with those unpicked items collected through FCSS and donated to the Food Bank Community Services and the Community Gardens arranged cooking and canning programs to help give ideas of what can be done with the summer produce.

The presentation was made Saturday in Taber at the awards ceremony and Fairweather accepted on behalf of the town.

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