100 Mile House has won the B.C. Communities In Bloom plant and floral arrangement award.
District of 100 Mile House councillor and acclaimed mayor Maureen Pinkney said 100 Mile House won the award thanks to the flower beds that line Birch Avenue, planted by district gardeners Kevin Christenson and David Labossiere. Pinkney said the CIB judges were impressed by all the hard work and ingenuity of the district’s groundskeeping staff.
“They were very surprised at the creativity of our gardeners putting grass plants with the blooming plants on Birch Avenue and how they could manage to stand up to our weather,” Pinkney said.
Along with the award, the judges scored 100 Mile House with four blooms out of a possible five. A bloom is earned based on how a community scores on the various criteria including tidiness, environmental stewardship, heritage conservation, urban forestry, landscaped areas and floral displays. Since the community resumed participating in CIB in 2019 thanks to Vall Bissat, Pinkey said this is the highest score that’s been earned.
Pinkney said she showed the judges around the South Cariboo in late July with the help of Donna Barnett, president of the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce. In addition to Birch Avenue, she said the judges visited Centennial Park, the 108 Mile Heritage Site, 100 Mile’s soccer fields, the South Cariboo Rec. Centre and other points of interest.
“I always tell people to be tourists in their own town. Go to the South Cariboo Information Centre and look at the brochures and you’d be amazed at what’s here,” Pinkney said. “The wonderful thing about touring these judges is you get to talk about everything that’s here and show them what you have. They’re really blown away by how spectacular our community is.”
Pinkney said that after reading the judges’ evaluation she’s determined to see 100 Mile House earn the full five blooms next year. She said that the judges praised them for the cleanliness of the community but noted that the Highway 97 corridor doesn’t match the aesthetic of the rest of the town.
“The businesses on the highway are more industrial and don’t necessarily lend themselves to that image but there’s some encouragement to move forward and make that highway corridor as beautiful as our downtown corridor,” Pinkney said. “We just need to do more of what we already do really well.”
Pinkey said she’d like to get more people involved with the CIB tour next year. She plans to introduce the judges to more local gardeners and start giving out awards to individuals who do their part to make 100 Mile House beautiful.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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