Barrhead is a pretty town.
That is the first impression of two tourists, Gillian Evans from Edmonton and Linda Tomlinson from Rocky Mountain House, after being given a quick tour on July 26.
However, Evans and Tomlinson are not just your everyday tourists, they are judges with the Communities in Bloom program.
Communities in Bloom is a national community beautification initiative, which began in 1995, with 29 communities. Since then it has grown to encompass hundreds of jurisdictions across the country with most provinces, including Alberta, hosting provincial competitions.
Barrhead has participated for the last two years, competing at both the provincial level, against municipalities of similar size, and the local level.
Last year, Barrhead received four out of five blooms.
“So far we love the town. It is obvious that the people of Barrhead have a lot of pride when you see the effort they have to made to beautify their community,” Tomlinson said to the Leader during a welcome luncheon at the Barrhead Bethel Pentecostal Church.
Evans agreed, saying she was looking forward to finishing the tour. Before the luncheon, the Barrhead Communities in Bloom committee led them on a walking tour of downtown, before driving through the town’s industrial section which included stops at the fire hall, RCMP detachment, public works shop, as well as the town’s compost and recycle site.
The judges were then given tours of the town’s cemeteries, Hillcrest Lodge, and the museum, as well the Barrhead Sports Grounds and Agrena. After the luncheon, the tour continued with stops at the homes of various residents who were participating in the program, along with the community’s parks and golf courses.
Evans said they specifically were looking at six different categories: environmental, overall tidiness, landscaping, floral displays, urban forestry and heritage conservation.
“Of course, there are things that every municipality can improve on and that is part of what we put on our comments,” Tomlinson said, adding that judging fairly and accurately is a difficult task. “We capture one day of what the town is. A municipality is just like a person — some days are better than others and we try to take that into account.”
“That’s true. We try to take all those factors into consideration, especially weather. For example, if there was a hail storm the night before, we judge accordingly,” Evans said, adding all the judges’ comments and suggestions are meant to be supportive. “What we find when a town starts working towards these goals is that they work together and become even more of a community. But I suspect from what I have seen so far that the town is already a very tight community. We can see that in the vibrant, clean streets.”
The town will receive Tomlinson and Evans’ judging report at the end of September before the provincial Communities in Bloom awards presentation in Cold Lake. This year, 34 communities are taking part in the provincial competition.
