11/16/11 After months of anxious waiting, the Plymouth, America in Bloom Committee received the 2011 judge’s evaluation of the city of Plymouth. This evaluation will help us focus on our weakness and help us step up our involvement with residents, businesses, and the city of Plymouth to work on visible improvements.
Plymouth was judged on eight criteria: tidiness, community involvement, environment awareness, heritage, urban forestry, landscape, floral displays and turf and groundcovers across three sectors: municipal, residential and commercial.
Plymouth received a two bloom rating with special recognition for its efforts in heritage preservation. The judges commended the town for having many buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, the newly renovated Marshall County Museum and the longevity of the Marshall County Blueberry Festival held in Plymouth. The judges stated “There is terrific talent and enthusiasm in the Plymouth Bloom group and we look forward to seeing your progress as you expand your committee and begin to implement your projects.” Plymouth was a winner just by participating.
The Planting Pride in Plymouth group joined the America in Bloom as a tool to improve Plymouth. We knew the downtown needed help, but as always we didn’t see the forest for the trees. The evaluation form pointed out our deficiencies in the Municipal, Commercial and Residential areas of our community with comments and suggestions on improvements needed in the eight criteria previously listed. We will use these comments and suggestions as we plan for next year.
To carry out the needed improvements, we need more individuals, service clubs, church groups and businesses as well as the city and the Chamber to join us in our endeavors. The Plymouth America in Bloom program is a project started and is a part of the Chambers Tourism/PR committee.
We invite the public to attend a meeting to be held at the Plymouth Public Library on December 8, 2011 at 7:00 pm at which time we will share the evaluation results and encourage those that want to make Plymouth a better place to live, shop and visit to join us.
