Tidy Towns; Newsletter Summer 2019

Welcome to the Summer Edition of our Tidy Towns Newsletter.

Weclome to our latest newsletter where we hope to showcase all the hard work that our community has been doing the last few months.

It’s hard to believe what we have accomplished over the last 18 months since restarting Clonmellon Tidy Towns. With a lot of hard work and co-operation from all areas of our community we have changed the way our village looks and feels. We have added a lot of new features such as picnic benches, a community garden, new flowerbeds, a wheelchair accessible picnic bench, and over the summer we have maintained hanging baskets along the main street.
Our biggest project over the last few months has been the painting of several properties in the village of which we are very proud. Most of these were derelict and in need of a bit of care and attention and we’re delighted to have them looking like new.

We also had meetings with various groups (Steering Committee, Market Square and the Men’s Shed) to discuss what we want to achieve in tidytowns and to improve co-operation and communication. We have discussed how best we can work together as to how we present our village to people who live and pass through it. We would like to acknowledge all the great support and encouragement we have received from these groups and local residents. We are pleased to report we have had many incidents of visitors and people who pass through our village complimenting how it looks. A big thank you to all who keep their housing estates clean and all on the main street who keep their shop fronts and footpaths clean and tidy through the summer months and all year round.

Community Garden
Our community garden is flourishing we have to thank all the people who took out plots for their great work. They put a lot of time into nourishing their plants and vegetables.
We have some green fingered young people who are very good at maintaining these and we wish them well. If you would like to take a plot just contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A big thank you to Snow Quarries for their support they provided us with some ( 804 ) to lay our footpath.

We have added 4 new picnic benches to our village 3 on the main street and one wheelchair accessible table beside the rose beds on the Mullingar road. We would like to thank the Supervalu Kells for sponsoring the Wheelchair Accessible bench and Clonmellon Men’s Shed for their help with these projects.

If you are interested in joining the Mens shed you can drop in to them in the Market Square on a Thursday where you will be most welcome to work on projects. You can also contact Brian Duffy on 087 2996924 for more info.

Market Square.

We would like to thank the Market Square Committee for their fantastic work in the square. They covered up the gas bottles beside the Chinese Takeaway, and they also recently gave us permission to paint all the railings and gates at the entrance. Painting will start in Autumn (weather permitting).
They also put up a new notice board, these are all welcome improvements. This shows that cross community co-operation can help achieve a lot in our small village.

Steering Group

We had a several very positive and productive meetings with the Steering Committee. We would like to thank Paula for co-ordinating these and Janine for helping us with our application for the CEP - community enhancement programme (subsequently granted). Again this is a good example of more cross community co-operation working for the betterment of Clonmellon and we look forward to working with the steering group going forward..

Westmeath County Council.

We would like to thank the Westmeath Co Council for all their help recently.
They have carried out a huge amount of work in our village such as new bins and all the trees that were expertly trimmed. On the Kells road, the derelict pump house was taken down and the entrance into this area was cleaned up and all the water leaks were fixed. We have to give credit to all the different departments who helped us with our enquiries over the last year or so and thank them for their co-operation. We look forward to improving our village with the help of our partners in the Co Council in the coming year.

Community Enhancement Grant

We applied for a grant to mark out the long unused tarred area beside the playground. We have been approved for over e1,000 towards this.
We will mark this area as a small basketball and football pitch. You will notice it is currently spray painted with survey lines and will soon be properly marked. (weather permitting)
This we believe will be a healthy outlet for our young children and maybe parents might use the basketball court. We hope that all the young kids will get a lot of fun and exercise here. We hope work on this will be completed commence in late August / early September. Thanks to the Steering Committee for their help with our application and those living nearby for their positive feedback and support when this was first proposed.

Flower Beds & Baskets

Late last year we carried out a survey with the help of the children in our local national School Clonmellon NS; asking the people what they would like us to focus on.
By far the biggest feedback was a request for more flowers and colour in our village. We set about organising this for 2019.
A lot of new flower beds went into our village over the last couple of months and they came on great .We had a wild pollinator bed and rose beds, hanging baskets and new fiberglass planter bowl holders. All the flowers brought lovely colour to our village as was our goal, a lot of people offered positive comments about them which pleased us greatly.

Sponsors

We would like to thank all our sponsors who have giving so generously to the tidy towns over the last year. Without their help we would not have purchased all our plants, equipment, furniture, flowers and insurance. We hope that as they walk around they can see all the changes that have taken place.
We would like to thank all who work with us to help keep our village looking good not only for the residents but for visitors as well.

Upcoming projects & events
 In Autumn we hope to paint the railings in the Market Square. We have collaborated with the Market Square committee on this and are just holding out for a decent dry spell. Fingers crossed!!.

 Near the Killallon road playground we hope to soon mark out the tarred area for football and basketball for our young children to give them a better place to come and have fun. We have secured grant approval to help with this.

 We will be holding our annual tea party fundraiser on Sunday September 15th in Issacs Well. Tickets will be available soon. Please support it and remember all donations big and small are welcome :)

As always we welcome any help, input and ideas.
Please contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Best wishes,
On behalf of the committee
John Wilson
Secretary