T-PT wins 6th LPA Newspaper of the Year
April 23, 2013OUR VIEW: Voice your choice at May 4th election
April 23, 2013
Houma and Thibodaux have been named district finalists in their population divisions in the Louisiana Garden Club Federation’s annual cleanest city contest, and both cities are prepping for the last visit from the club’s three-judge panel.
“We are constantly busy sprucing up the city,” said Kirk Chiasson, director of parks for the city of Thibodaux. “It’s a joint effort with us and the Thibodaux Garden Club. The garden club rides the route and makes recommendations, and we prep the route. I ride it and try to put myself in judge’s shoes. There’s no extra work on our part, just fine tuning a few certain things.”
Chiasson’s park crew and the city’s public works division have been and will continue to be busy during the next few weeks, cleaning at the city’s seven parks, landscaping on Canal Boulevard and at all of the city buildings and mowing grass.
“We will make sure everything is fresh and change out the annual plants that are replaced every three to four months,” Chiasson said. “It’s also the middle of baseball season, so we will be busy with that, too, keeping up the fields. We will also have to trim the clover along Canal because it grows so fast.”
“It’s a great honor that we won this award, and I hope we win state,” he continued. “The judges passed through Peltier Park on their route, so we know the park department is doing its job.”
Mayor Tommy Eschete and Thibodaux Garden Club president Brenda Gautreaux were also pleased with the city taking first in the district contest.
“My congratulations to the Thibodaux Garden Club and to all of our residents for their efforts in having our city being chosen as the Cleanest City in District III,” Eschete said. “It’s a true testament to the passion that our community leaders and our residents have to maintain that special quality of life we all enjoy here in Thibodaux. We all know that Thibodaux is the Crowned Jewel of the Bayou Region. Now let’s continue our quest to garner the award as Cleanest City in our State when we compete on May 10, 2013.”
“Thibodaux has not won the state title since 1996-97, and I hope this will be our year,” Gautreaux said.
The LGCF has been hosting the Cleanest City contest since 1958, and Thibodaux and Houma are both members of District III, which also includes towns in Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption, St. Mary, St. Martin, Lafayette, Iberia and Vermillion parishes.
Thibodaux will compete against Crowley, Destrehan and Pineville in the final round of the contest, and scores for the event are based on the appearance of areas along a predetermined route. Judges will examine private yards, neighborhoods, parks, public buildings, sidewalks, vacant lots and streets.
“These routes must show different elements of the city – hospitals, recreation areas and even cemeteries,” said Linda Brashear, president of the Terrebonne Garden Club and LGCF District III chairman. “I took the judges around for the district competition around by the courthouse, city hall and the hospital area, and they commented how there was not a speck of litter on the ground in Thibodaux. They said the approaches to the town were very clean, and they could see the pride that the town has for itself.”
Houma will compete against Hammond and Sulphur in the state contest, and Linda Henderson, community problem solver for Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government has overseen the city’s preparation for the contests.
“It takes a lot of labor from the parish’s public works, solid waste, vegetation and downtown cleaning crews to get the city ready,” Henderson said. “We checked to make sure the courthouse area was clean and that the fountain was working. Public works checked the drains and bridges along the route and filled potholes in the road. Each day of the week leading up to the district contest, crews used nets to remove trash from Bayou Terrebonne.”
Parish work crews also painted curbs and parking lot striping in public lots, and, the morning of the contest, street sweepers were out cleaning the streets while solid waste emptied garbage cans.
Henderson has been staying in constant contact with downtown businesses and businesses along the bayou to make sure there are not any beautification issues that need to be addressed along the route.
“I took the district judges by the marina and civic center, along Dunn and High streets and to see the homes along Bayou Black,” she said. “We did have some litter on Barrow Street, but the judges had a good, general impression of the town, and they said that the public and municipal buildings are well kept.”
In addition to the sprucing up from parish workers, members of the community also pitched in to prepare the city for viewing.
“The youth of the parish are asked to take the Do Not Litter Pledge at school, and the judges were impressed with that,” Henderson said. “Six volunteers from our new partnership with Home Depot – Team Depot – split the route and were out there at 6 a.m. the morning of the contest, checking things along the route, and volunteers from the Victory Christian Church Youth group also helped clean up. Area Boy Scout Troops also distributed fliers to businesses along the route to let them know about the contest so that they could clean up around the businesses. The businesses were grateful to know about the contest, and businesses and residents were very cooperative with cleanup.”
With the state contest less than a month away, Henderson is confident the city has a shot at winning state.
“I’m always positive, and I think Houma will win,” she said. “A win would be so great for Terrebonne Parish, and it would put us on the map. I always hear about how clean the city is from visitors, and we won state in this contest, for the first time, in 2008. I think this is our year again.”
Parish president Michel Claudet is also looking forward to the state contest.
“Having a clean and litter free community is a high priority for us,” Claudet said. “While we are proud of being named the cleanest city in our district, we look forward to showing off Terrebonne Parish in the upcoming state cleanest city contest.”
Thibodaux will compete in the final round of the Louisiana Garden Club Federation’s annual Cleanest City contest. Houma was also named Cleanest City in its population division.
