After winning two prizes without officially entering last year, local volunteers hope to earn Communities in Bloom’s top rating in 2012.

Former city councillor Shelley Sanders, revived the Merritt Communities in Bloom committee last year.

“The Communities in Bloom committee is looking forward to an exciting year with the goal being to achieve five-bloom rating for Merritt,” Sanders wrote in a letter to the City of Merritt council.

Committee members donated their time and effort to beautifying the town in 2011.

Communities in Bloom is a provincewide competition that ranks towns and cities based on criteria like floral displays, landscaping, and tidiness.

Five blooms is the highest number a community can earn in the competition.

At the 2011 Communities in Bloom annual awards on Vancouver Island last September, the City of Merritt received the heritage conservation award and a four-bloom ranking.

The awards came as a surprise since judges had originally visited with the intent of giving advice to the local committee on how it could improve its chances in 2012.

Until Sanders revived the Merritt Communities in Bloom committee, the group had been dormant for several years due to a lack of volunteers.

Council unanimously approved a funding request for $675 plus taxes for Merritt’s 2012 Communities in Bloom membership at its Jan. 24 meeting.