Beautification Award gets facelift

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

CHRISAWN

The McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce has announced there will be a bit of a change in one of its annual awards programs in 2004. In the words of Chamber president Lea Chrisawn, the Beautification Award has gotten a face lift.

“We’re going to do something different,” said Chrisawn. “We’re really excited. Before, we’d always done three awards in the summertime, June, July and August. So Joyce Lawson, the office administrator, said why don’t we do it once a quarter so we hit all the seasons. So we’re going to do a spring, summer, fall and winter.”

The quarterly contests will feature different areas and various categories. For the Spring Beautification Award, the category is “Interesting Trees, Shrubs, and Plants.” This competition will be for certified nurseries only. Anyone can nominate the nursery, but that nursery must be a member of a professional organization.

“Whether it’s the Middle Tennessee Nursery Association or the Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association,” Chrisawn said, “Or one of the other certified organizations.”

Nominations began the first of this month and will continue until the end of April. The winner will be announced April 30, which is Arbor Day both nationally and locally.

Chrisawn said the Chamber hopes this will be a fun competition between the local nurseries, and is designed to recognize the contributions local nurseries make to the community.

“We wanted the nurseries to know we appreciate the beauty they bring to the community,” Chrisawn said. “The economy they keep alive and well and all the business they are doing, spreading the name of McMinnville all across the United States, even in Europe and all over the world really.”

To nominate an interesting, or maybe even weird looking, tree, shrub or plant, call the Chamber at 473-6611.