Award to Honor Top Public Works Grounds

The Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) is looking to honor the nation’s top public works grounds management programs with its Green Star Awards. The Green Star Awards program brings national recognition to grounds maintained with a high degree of excellence. The program complements other national landscape award programs that recognize outstanding landscape design and construction by saluting the grounds superintendent and staff responsible for maintaining a well-manicured landscape year round.

In all, grounds management professionals can choose among 15 categories: small sites; residential landscapes; public works sites; shopping areas; hospitals or institutions; government buildings or complexes; cemeteries or memorial parks; industrial, commercial sites or office parks; parks, recreation areas or playgrounds; multiple sites under management companies; condominium or apartment complexes; hotel, motel or resorts; amusement parks, theme parks or zoos; athletic fields, professional fields or golf courses; and school grounds, university and college grounds, or urban university grounds.

There are two classes of awards, the Grand and the Honor. Only one Grand Award will be given, while judges may grant as many Honor Awards as they deem deserving. Recent winners in the Public Works Category included the Hollywood, Fla. Business District and Chicago’s Central Business District.

The deadline for entries is Friday, August 3, 2007. To enter, fill out the entry form and submit the payment and entry to the PGMS office. The cost is only $150 for PGMS members and $225 for others. For a reduced rate, non-members may join PGMS and enter the contest. There is no limit to the number of categories an organization may enter. Only digital photographs are accepted, along with brief descriptions of each. There are many elements of the highly recognized contest that may be best depicted in photographs taken throughout the seasons.

Each winning entry will be honored at the 2007 Awards Banquet in Louisville, Ken. on Saturday, October 27 at the conclusion of the Society’s 2007 School of Grounds Management and GIE Expo scheduled to take place at the Galt House & Kentucky Exposition Center from October 24-27.

Further information on the awards, including an official entry form, qualifications, a full explanation of categories, and a list of past award winners, is available online at www.pgms.org/greenstars.