City of Seymour Receives Two AIM Awards for Pollinator Gardens and Curb Appeal Program
FRENCH LICK – Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (AIM) recently announced Seymour has been awarded an AIM Green Community of the Year Award for their Pollinator Gardens initiative and a Community Program Innovation Award for their Curb Appeal Program.
Seymour was honored with the awards on Thursday, Nov. 3, during the Annual Awards Luncheon presented by Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors LLC during the 2022 AIM Ideas Summit in French Lick.
The City of Seymour has transformed several small areas in established parks and other areas into gardens for pollinators. The concept is simple – a small garden that attracts bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and more to transfer pollen from flower to flower. These small gardens can make a huge difference as pollinators have suffered greatly from loss of habitat, the spread of invasive plant and animal species, and the disappearance of some pollinators. Seymour has steadily replaced grassy and overgrown areas with pollinator gardens over the past couple of years and is now up to more than 2,000 square feet of pollinator space.
“The Seymour pollinator gardens are a great example of how municipalities understand their ability to solve problems beyond what many see as the traditional roles of a city or town. This award highlights Seymour’s holistic approach to municipal services and we were excited to showcase the pollinator gardens project as this year’s Green Project of the year,” said AIM CEO Matt Greller.
For the Program Innovation Award, Seymour won in the less than 25,000 population category.
Seymour created the Curb Appeal program to demonstrate that small, but visible, projects such as landscaping, new windows, a sidewalk, new siding or shutters, a power washing, or a new coat of paint would make a difference in neighborhoods. The city provided matching funds up to $500 per project or $750 for neighbors applying together. The council backed the program up to $10,000 from the unsafe structure fund and more than $8,200 was awarded.
“Seymour’s Curb Appeal program is proof that you don’t have to spend millions of dollars to impact a community’s pride of place. Programs like this are easily replicated to fit the needs of other cities and towns and we hope this recognition will produce just the right kind of copycats,” Greller said.
In its 46th year, the AIM Annual Awards program recognizes communities and individuals in municipal government for excellence and outstanding achievement. A seven-member panel of qualified judges selected this year’s winners from a competitive field of nominees from around the state.