Pictured from Left to Right: Front Row: Leslie Croyle (AIB Judge), Ruth Elijah, Mayor Patty Fisel, Norma Donley. Back Row: Jason Becker, Bill Hahn (AIB Judge), Jerry Donley, Wayne Fox, Chris Fought. Not Pictured: Betty Petersen
LIGONIER, IN-On Monday July 7th, two judges representing the America in Bloom contest met with several members of the local government and community leaders to meet each other and review the agenda for the 2 day visit. Bill Hahn and Leslie Crowl, both from Ohio, were the judges that were sent to survey the city. Each judge has had several years of experience not only in judging city criteria, but also began their experience with AIB by participating with their home town in the contest. Bill and Leslie were both very excited to be in Ligonier to see what our community is doing to promote a solid community foundation and quality of life.
The criteria that the judges evaluate a city on are much more than flowers and landscaping as the name America in Bloom would suggest. The criteria are: Heritage Preservation, Tidiness, Community Involvement, Floral Display, Landscaped Areas, Sod & Groundcover Areas, Urban Forestry and Environmental Awareness.
Our goal for this participation was to have someone from the outside of our community come and compare us to other communities of similar size and give us recommendations of what we are doing well and areas that we needed to work on. Throughout the two day visit the judges were introduced to: City government officials; past, present and future city projects; Jenny Thompson Gardens; Ligonier Library; Operation Foundation; Discovery Express; Ligonier Police; Ligonier Fire; Future Ligonier Alliance; Radio Museum; Ligonier Historical Society; Ligonier Water Dept; Ligonier Waste Water Treatment; Stone’s Trace Historical Society; Ligonier Parks and a driving tour of the entire community. There was so much to show Bill and Leslie that we ran out of time or had to cut short several discussions of these areas and several more.
I want to thank everyone involved with this visit. Without the support of each person, this visit would never have been received as well as it was. Thank you so much for each of your efforts. I am so proud of all the people that participated in this visit. We have some of the most dedicated and visionary people in this community that I have ever seen gathered for one goal – the improvement of the quality of life for the citizens of Ligonier.
Everyone should know that these judges were absolutely amazed at the things this city and its citizens are doing. Monday night Bill and Leslie were presented Operation Foundation and what its goals are for our community. This meeting was inspirational to everyone that attended. Bill gave such wonderful words of encouragement to the foundation building movement that Operation Foundation is doing. No other city that they have seen our size has such a dedicated volunteer group as Ligonier does.
From this meeting we were asked to present Operation Foundation to the National Convention of America in Bloom held the first weekend of October in Columbus Ohio. What an honor this is for a new participant in this contest.
I would like to make a personal ‘Thank You’ to the groups and individuals that made this possible. Without the support of groups and people like these, our vision for the future would not be as bright. Thank you.
