ST. MARTINVILLE — St. Martinville residents are cleaning house in expectation of some very special guests this week.

The St. Martinville Garden Club will play host to Cleanest City judges with the Louisiana Garden Club Federation on Wednesday in hopes of earning a winning spot in the cleanest city contest.  Local  students got involved in showing community pride by coming up with a slogan to help get residents motivated as well as submitting art on index cards and posters with this year’s theme. 

The winning theme this year was submitted by Brennan Gary and eighth-grader at  St. Martinville Junior High, “From East to West, Let’s Make St. Martinville Look Its Best.” Winning entries were rewarded at Monday night’s St. Martinville City Council Meeting.  Glenda Katley Sonnier, the Cleanest City chairperson for the city, said it’s important that students take part in the activity. 

“It instills community pride and it teaches them about liter abatement,” Sonnier said. “They can go back and tell their parents, ‘No, you’re not supposed to litter.’ ”

Sonnier said judges are expected to arrive at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and organizers already know what they will be graded on. 

“We will take three judges on a prepared route, we will visit the cemetery, the fire district, schools, libraries and parks,” Sonnier said.  

Although the adults are the ones who have done most of the sprucing things up around town, she said the children are apart of the judging process as well. 

“It’s important that they participate because that’s one of the point sections in the contest. We have to have community participation,” she said.

Brenda Courville, St. Martinville Garden Club president, said, “There’s a score sheet of 100 points. They look for abandoned cars, weeds, and trash along the highway,” Courville said.

Also at Monday night’s City Council meeting, three new members were approved to join the St. Martinville Police Department. Police Chief Richard Martin was granted permission from the council to hire one full time patrol officer, Cavan Zacharie, and two volunteer reserve patrol officers, Rodney Poirier Jr. and Jessie Charpantier Jr.

“It’s helping us add more officers to the road, which is a part off my plan and to build a reserve force,” Martin said. “We’re building a reserve force. We’re at eight so far and we’re going to have a total of 10 that’s volunteer officers. We’re going to train them and as time goes by they can get out on their own and help out taking calls.”