Babin seeking Terrebonne presidency
April 29, 2015
Houma Police Officer named top cop in state
April 29, 2015
Despite many hands working many brooms, rakes, shears and mowers, Houma came placed third in the Cleanest City Competition, organized yearly by the Louisiana Garden Club Federation.
Houma, which won the title of cleanest city in its district last month, tied with Terrytown for third place. Natchitoches won second place. The cleanest Louisiana city this year was Hammond.
The cleanest city contest is sponsored by the Louisiana Federation of Garden Clubs. Almost every parish in the state has a garden club that is affiliated with the federation.
The division in which Houma competed is for cities ranging in population from 15,000 to 50,000 people and includes Hammond, Terrytown, Opelousas, Sulpher, and Natchitoches.
The cities rivaling Houma for the cleanest title have an edge on Houma because they have smaller populations , said Linda Henderson, beautification coordinator for Terrebonne Parish. Henderson is originally from Ponchatoula, so the Hammond area, she said, is her “stomping ground.”
“I know the pride that the citizens of downtown Hammond have,” she said.
By week’s end, Henderson should receive the critique performed by the LGCF judges when they visited Houma on April 17.
One of the highest scoring components in the competition is community involvement, for which Houma got the highest possible score during the district phase. That momentum was only stronger in the state level, with more local businesses and volunteers pitching in to clean up afterwards.
“One of the judges told me that this was the largest community participation that they have ever seen,” Henderson said, after state judging was done. ”And that this is what they are striving for in their Cleanest City efforts.”
Many volunteers helped clean up the route before during the district judging, including volunteers from Entergy and Home Depot. Volunteers efforts were integral to winning the district competition, Henderson said.
Even with the combined efforts from volunteers leading up to the eleventh hour, litter was still being picked up off Houma’s streets on the morning of judging, said Linda Brashier, chairwoman of the Terrebonne Garden Club.
“Houma is an oil town, whereas Hammond and Natchitoches are more of the college town,” Brashier said. She said that makes a difference because it’s harder to educate the public about the importance of not littering.
The judges began their tour, which lasted 45 minutes, at the Waterlife Museum, then along the Bayou Walk area of Bayou Terrebonne, up New Orleans Boulevard, next onto the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center area, then Jim Bowie Park, where they saw oak trees planted by mothers of soldiers who died in WWII, afterward on Bayou Black Drive, from which they visited various homes, a nursing home and government buildings making their way back to the Waterlife Museum.
The ground was saturated that Friday thanks to persistent rain last week. Cutting under these extreme wet conditions would only make “ruts and causes a mess,” Henderson wrote participants before the state judges arrived.
“The judges certainly understand this; and every city in the contest is challenged with the same issue,” she wrote.
