Provincial Communities in Bloom judges met with Mayor Rennie Harper, town staff, and residents during their August tour of Nipawin. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

By Aaron Schulze

Nipawin CiB

Nipawin receives three blooms, wins category at Saskatchewan’s Communities in Bloom

Oct 21, 2019 | 1:58 PM

After being absent in the competition since 2005, the Town of Nipawin’s comeback into Saskatchewan’s Communities in Bloom (CiB) paid off.

Nipawin received three blooms out of five – winning the 3,001 to 4,999 population category – and was given a special recognition for its green spaces and parks.

Chelsea Corrigan, Nipawin’s director of parks and recreation, works with the Nipawin CiB. She attended the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association’s conference in North Battleford beginning on Oct. 18 to receive the accolades on behalf of Nipawin CiB.

“We’re very excited and proud of Nipawin,” Corrigan told northeastNOW. “We feel the town as a whole came together when the judges came, and we showed Nipawin really well. Three blooms is a great start, but we are definitely looking forward to competing next year and improving.”

Two judges who visited the town in August and their report was provided to Nipawin CiB. Corrigan said the judges thought Nipawin showed well in the six main categories: tidiness, environmental action, heritage and conservation, urban forestry, landscape, and floral design.

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The special recognition for green spaces and parks was given based on landmarks within the town, such as the Co-op Band Stand and the tidiness of buildings in Central Park. The judges also credited the urban forests, fruit trees, and flowerpots in Nipawin’s downtown core.

However, there was also constructive criticism for how Nipawin can improve in the provincial CiB competition going forward.

“I know we’re going to be looking at tree inventory in the future to document the condition of our trees, the varieties we have in Nipawin, and what we need to look at in the future,” Corrigan said.

The judges also recommended that Nipawin should plant a community garden and look at its bylaws that speak to water conservation and protection of trees.

Corrigan said Nipawin will look at developing a community garden in the spring, plan a garbage pick up day, and determine how to beautify the downtown core in 2020.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow