LOUISIANA GARDEN CLUB FEDERATION, INC.


e-mail

DISTRICT III
GARDEN CLUBS

 ST. MARTINVILLE GARDEN CLUB

Standard Flower Show
April 26, 2008


Tubular Design ~ Designers Choice
  District I

  District II

  District III

  District IV

  District V

  District VI

  District VII

  District VIII  


CLEANEST CITY CONTEST PREPARATIONS

St. Martinville – On April 9, Glenda Kately will once again take the Cleanest City judges in tow and thread the fine line between one of the nation’s airiest and most picturesque Main Streets and neighborhoods with junk cars, knee-high weeds and piles of trash. “I pretty much use the same route every year,” said Kately, who is parks director for the city and also heads up the annual Cleanest City effort. “I would love to change it but it’s so hard to get to where you’re going. I don’t go in the back. I can’t.” The Cleanest City contest, sponsored by the St. Martinville Garden Club and the Louisiana Garden Clubs Federation, judges a city on 10 criteria:
1. The entrances to the city      2. Public buildings like schools, fire stations and nursing homes
3. Open areas like parks and cemeteries      4. Businesses
5. Residential areas      6. Neutral grounds, including streets and sidewalks
7. Vacant lots       8. Community participation
9. Publicity demonstrating progress      10. The judges overall impression

Thanks to Kately and the relative handful of volunteers who will muster for the Trash Bash Saturday (April 5), St. Martinville has taken first place in its population category of 5,001 to 8,000 for the past two years. It hasn’t been easy. Some people don’t cooperate. Some are unable or unwilling to bundle yard waste as required by the waste hauler’s contract. The city must either pick it up with its own crews or pay Allied Waste extra to send another truck. Either way, trash tends to pile up. Some people won’t clean up their yards, much less the sidewalks or the ditches.
“It causes a problem for me to get to my route,” said Kately. “Sometimes there’s a beautiful neighborhood and there’s one person with an awful yard.” There are laws, of course, but they take time. Often personal appeals fall on deaf ears.
“It’s hard, it’s very hard,” she said.
A little thing like grass growing between the cracks in the sidewalk can hurt the effort.
“I notice some people, they don’t tend to the neutral ground in front of the house,” Kately said. “They’ll cut their grass but they won’t manicure the sidewalks in front of their property.” Police Chief Paula Smith, who is processing the complaints about junk cars — a big demerit in the eyes of the judges — said the process of identifying and notifying the owners takes time. She said the department — with the help of wrecker-driver Kevin Johnson, who hauls off the vehicles for the parts — is winnowing down the list. If there still seems to be no shortage of junk cars in town, it’s because they’re going unreported, Smith said. “If they want them removed, they can call us and we can make those arrangements,” she said.

Saturday’s Trash Bash convenes at the Maison Duchamp at 9 a.m., Kately said. Anyone for a three-peat?
Posted March 31st, 2008 by Ken Grissom www.techetoday