Everyone gathered at the in the Town Hall Council Chambers to meet and mingle with the judges of this years’ Communities in Bloom. There were cookies, donuts, and juice boxes, the perfect way to start off a Friday morning.
Once everyone had taken a seat Mayor Patricia Matthews welcomed everyone and started things off with a quick biography of the two judges before passing the ball to Ken Jackson, manager of Chestermere’s parks for the grand tour.
Francine Belley has taken a technical course in ornamental horticulture. She has several years of experience in the production of greenhouses and over 30 years of experience in the horticultural section of the CFIH as a Canadian Inspection Agency. On four occasions in the past she has represented the Canadian government in the Netherlands and England for bulbs inspections and used vehicle programs and she’s held the position of coordinator and expert system quality management in Quebec during the last three years of her career. She retired in 2009 and has been devoting her passion to traveling and landscaping and is involved in the Communities in Bloom program and particularly interested in developing landscaping in order to create a sustainable human environment.’
Ron Dubyk retired parks manager graduated from Niagra Parks School of Horitculture and spent the next five years as a teacher and programs coordinator at Humburg College. After Humburg Ron was recruited by Canada’s wonderland and was a landscape manager there, overseeing construction and operations and then started in municipal operations with Metro Toronto Parks as a superintendent and then manager of operations. He retired in 2012 and has previously served as a provincial and national judge for Communities in Bloom from ’98-2000 and is a returning judge this year.
Welcomes said and well-wishes made, those eager and ready to take the tour with Mister Jackson trooped out the front doors of the town hall; and that is when the rain started. Unfortunately most of the tour around Chestermere that day was spent under a soggy, overcast sky and we hope that it didn’t negatively affect Francine Belley and Ron Dubyk’s opinion of Chestermere.
Saturday proved to be slightly overcast in the morning but brightened into a sunny afternoon as they concluded their tour and saw a bit of the Chestermere Water Festival.
Thank you Francine Belley and Ron Dubyk for coming to judge for our Communities in Bloom and thank you to everyone else who had a hand in arranging and organizing before and during their visit.
