Five well-earned Blooms should say a lot about King

It's strange, but one of the inevitable facts of life is that people often don't realize how good they have it.

Such was the case, we believe, with the impressive score awarded King Township in the 2007 Communities in Bloom competition.

King notched five Blooms for the second consecutive year, at the national level, along with 842 out of a possible 1,000 points in eight different categories; a solid A grading by anyone's standards.

People in King know they have a beautiful municipality, although they sometimes differ on the best way to preserve and maintain it. But the local pride came through once again, and that was obviously clear to the two judges who toured the area in August; Mario Fournier and Sylvie Cormier.

People in the area worked together, and that was demonstrated by the fact that community involvement was the category in which King scored the highest; again.

"In all fields of activities, there is a strong involvement of volunteers and pride in the results which they have achieved," the judges wrote.

There were several specific programs and features they singled out for praise, from the advent of the Green Bin program to the gazebo that now stands outside the library in Nobleton, which they called "an initiative worth repeating in other sectors of the township."

And the best news, we think, is things are steadily improving. King's score went up from 831 to 842 this year, which is a pretty good advance from the 786.75 points and four Blooms the township scored in 2005, the first year of competing at the national level.

Our hats are off to Steve Pellegrini, who headed up this year's effort, Lynda Rogers, who led previous efforts and set the foundation to be built upon, Catherine Purcell and the Township staff who contributed and all the others who pitched in to help.

Take a bow.