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Judges will soon descend on Jasper to see just how blooming marvellous our town is.
The Communities in Bloom committee will tour Andrea Bocsi from Hungary and Albertan Lorna McIlroy, from Grande Prairie, on July 17.
“There is nothing we don’t show them,” said Colleen Green, co-chairwoman of the Communities in Bloom committee.
“The municipality is going a lot of clean-up right now - it is a big deal to get everything looking good.
"The town is helping and that is great.
“We want to try to look good.”
So, Jasperites, spruce up your front yard and get the town looking its best.
Green said: “They say if you take three pieces of garbage with you when you leave the beach you have made a difference. Well, if everyone went downtown and picked up three pieces of garbage…”
The six aspects Jasper will be judged on are tidiness, environmental action, heritage conservation, urban forestry, landscape and floral displays.
And as community involvement is the essence of the Communities in Bloom program, the evaluation includes achievements of citizens, businesses, organisations, institutions and the municipal government working together towards common objectives.
"Environmental action is huge in Jasper, volunteerism is huge, the trails system is awesome,” said Green.
“Things we are going to highlight are the plastic bag ban, definitely the community garden.
“Greg Van Tighem will tell them about Fire Smart, which is huge this year.
“We we will be talking to the museum about their geological garden they are going to set up - anything we can do to best show what we do here.”
Communities in Bloom’s theme for 2019 is recognising special initiatives and sharing “blooming” memories of the past 25 years.
For this, the committee will take the judges to meet with the Friends of Jasper National Park and showcase our some of the historical buildings in town like the information centre and the post office.
Communities are rated from 1 to 5 Blooms, based on scoring, and the National and International Communities aim for Bronze, Silver or Gold levels in their 5-Bloom rating.
In 2018, Jasper won 5 Bloom silver with a mention of volunteerism with the Friends of Jasper.
And in 2017 Jasper won 5 Bloom bronze.
“We are going up every year which is good,” said Green.
“Of course all 5 Bloom gold would be lovely.”
