Rathowen preparing for pride of place judges

The village of Rathowen is looking its pristine best today (Tuesday) ahead of judgement day in the all island Pride of Place competition. Representing Westmeath, along with Battery Heights in Athlone, the residents there, driven on by the Rathowen Community Development, have undertaken marvellous work in recent years, enhancing the village in many ways.

All will be hoping that the judges, former senior local authority officials Rita McNulty and Declan Nelson, joined by Maurice Inglis, the national co-ordinator of Pride of Place, will be impressed by the painstaking work of the community.

One of the first projects undertaken was the complete overhaul of the community centre and up to £202,000 was spent on the makeover before it opened in 2001. Remarkably the committee ensured that the work was paid for in just three years.

The community park cost over €102,000 and opened in 2013 with funding from Westmeath Community Development to the tune of €76,000.

Four years earlier the adjacent playground, which cost over €68,000, was opened. The community were supported in this project by Westmeath County Council who provided €30,000 of the overall spend. It is to the community’s credit that they have no loans on the projects.

The judges are expected in Rathowen from 10am tomorrow and they be accompanied by Annette Barr Jordan from Westmeath County Council, who is closely associated with the such development projects.

It is likely that the judging will take up to three hours, with the adjudicators due to leave the village at about 1pm.

It is a very special day for Rathowen as apart from the Pride of Place event, the community is also marking the 20th anniversary of the birth of Rathowen Community Development and to mark the anniversary there will be a tree planting ceremony at 1.30pm tomorrow.

And after that it will be time to party with a monster Family Fun Day. It certainly seems like Rathowen is the place to be.