Two judges with Communities in Bloom (CIB) were in Humboldt July 19-21, with the official tour taking place July 20.
Lorraine Flanigan has had her work appear in Garden Making, Canadian Gardening, Canadian Living, and the Globe and Mail. She’s also the editor of the Toronto Botanical Garden’s magazine, among other garden-themed writing projects. Brad Beatty hails from Stratford, Ontario and is a city councillor and chair of the volunteer Civic Beautification and Environmental Awareness Committee. He is also a member of his own city’s CIB committee.
The two judges had a busy few days, with a schedule that included visits to Original Humboldt, the museum and gallery, the Benson-Hingley Military Museum, the Good Neighbours Store, the community garden, the public cemetery, and more. Between that there were interviews, meet and greets, and talks from various community members.
“There are amazing things we’re seeing from your community in so many different capacities. It’s just fantastic,” Beatty said.
“The community involvement here seems to be really, really great, as well as the business community involvement,” Flanigan said.
Sheila Nordick, who is on the CIB committee in Humboldt, said the judges look at many things: tidiness, environmental action, heritage conservation, urban forestry, and landscape, but all the categories have one thing in common.
“Community involvement is part of all of it,” she said.
Each category also has different initiatives taken by the City. Some of those initiatives include, but are not limited to:
• Tidiness - matching garbage bins incorporated into downtown, a partnership between the Girl Guides and City to clean up Water Ridge Park, encouragement to spray non-offensive graffiti at the skate park, and the Business Improvement District Volunteer Street Clean Up.
• Environmental action - compost bin rebate, energy efficiency upgrades to the arena, aquatic centre, community hall, and curling rink; fully automatic controlled irrigation system at Glenn Hall Park; the golf course using a combination of reclaimed water, city water, and water from Burton Lake; the Good Neighbour store; the heritage garden; and reusing the water at the spray park.
• Heritage conservation - upgrades to the cemeteries, enhancement of the former CN station, the conservation of both the post office building and the Merchants Bank, and the Royal Canadian Legion.
• Urban forestry - tree planting and yearly staff training at the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation conference.
• Landscape - rejuvenating the cemeteries, the gazebo and shrub bed in Civic Park, community trails, and hydrant painting.
“For me, what has really stood out is how a community of 6,800 people has so many volunteers that get so much work done,” Beatty said. “It’s obvious that much of this gets done through the hard work and time dedicated through the volunteers.”
Flanigan liked seeing the community gardens and was impressed that there were plans for two more (by the water tower and St. Elizabeth’s park).
It’s hard for Nordick to speak to what she thinks are Humboldt’s strengths and weaknesses, since it all depends on what the judges are looking for; everyone is different.
“It depends whose eyes are looking at it,” she said. “Some say we need to look at certain areas and other judges look at something different … one of the big things is maintaining what we’ve got.” For example, the cemeteries.
Beatty and Flanigan have been looking at communities across Canada, in Ontario, Newfoundland, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and later, Alberta. They both say there are small differences in what the different communities can offer. Flanigan said that in Newfoundland, they can’t grow tomatoes in the open due to the climate and short growing season.
“At the end of the day, what is consistent through everything we’ve seen is the pride,” Beatty said. “We see it here in that people want to share their story about why they love Humboldt. No matter where you go, you see community resonating throughout.”
