America in Bloom judges share comments about Coshocton

Jack Clasen remarks about Susie Stratton (far right) being a hard speaker to follow. Clasen and Stratton are judges with America in Bloom and came to Coshocton July 23-24 to evaluate the community. Pictured with them is Tim France, president of Coshocton in Bloom, which hosted the judges. Josie Sellers | Beacon

COSHOCTON – Susie Stratton felt very fortunate to have spent time in the beautiful city of Coshocton.

She and Jack Clasen are judges with America in Bloom and they spent July 23-24 touring Coshocton with members of Coshocton in Bloom. Their goal while in town was to evaluate Coshocton on America in Bloom’s seven criteria: Flowers, landscaped areas, urban forestry, environmental efforts, celebrating heritage, community vitality, and overall impression.

“I’ve really enjoyed my visit,” Stratton said. “Your floral displays are spectacular. They make someone want to stop and stay.”

She and Clasen shared some of their thoughts on their visit during a community reception on July 24 at Clary Gardens that wrapped up their stay in Coshocton.

One of Stratton’s favorite stops on their tour was the Roscoe Village area.

“That’s really important because it draws visitors to your area,” she said.”The museum’s displays are just amazing and I enjoyed the gardens, the visitor’s center and REACT Park.”

Clasen actually came to Coshocton six years ago to judge the community and was happy to be back.

“It (the community) looks better now than it did six years ago,” he said. “The difference thrills me.”

Clasen also commented on the beautiful floral displays.

“When you won the outstanding achievement award for floral displays I was surprised, but now that I’ve had a chance to come back I definitely see that you deserved that award,” he said. “Congratulations.”

One of the new areas that judges have to evaluate participants on is community vitality, which addresses opportunities to get people out and about like hiking and biking trails.

“That is really strong here,” Clasen said.

He also sensed a lot of enthusiasm and confidence in the future from those he spoke with in the community.

“The city is taking on more projects than when I was here before and more people are starting to take care of their property,” Clasen said. “There is still a long way to go, but it’s catching on.”

One suggestion the judges left the Coshocton in Bloom members with was to work on signage throughout the city.

“That is something we’ve been working on for the last two year,” said Tim France, president of Coshocton in Bloom. “We have to think about the way we do them and how we do them. We don’t just want to send people downtown. We want to point them to historic downtown. We’ve had to wait on the bridge project to happen though before we could do that.”

Coshocton in Bloom will receive the judges’ results around the end of September. Anyone who would like to join the group in its efforts to beautify Coshocton and help spread community pride is welcome to call Clary Gardens at 740-622-6524 for more information.

Category: Clubs & Organizations, Multimedia, Photo Galleries