New Board Members Elected!

At last week's Annual Meeting, we had a great gathering of local businesses and an enlightening discussion about buying local from Jane Prince, a Daytons Bluff neighbor and representative of the Metro Independent Business Association. We unveiled our new welcome packets for new neighbors, so if you are new to the area, or know someone who is new to our community, let us know and we will get a packet to you.

We also elected new board members and officers. Our new President is Greg Beaumont, Vice President - Erika Martin, Treasurer - Stacey Van Patten, and Secretary - Phil Fuehrer. Greg Poul, Sandy Rosbacka and Collins Dibaki were elected as new board members, along with incumbents Saalim Mahamed, Pastor Andy Berreth, Dave Nasby, Marty Danielson and Garneth Peterson.

We still have openings for community members interested in serving on our committees.

Thanks to all the businesses who participated and especially to Caribou Coffee/Byerly's for refreshments and Little Oven for door prizes.

16th Annual Battle Creek Park Clean Up

Celebrate Earth Day, Saturday April 18 from 9-11a, by helping clean up Battle Creek Regional Park. Bring friends, neighbors and family members to pick up trash in the park by following the signs to one of 12 check-in sites. With over 780 acres to cover, we need all the volunteers we can get!

• Please dress for the weather and wear long pants, work shoes/boots, and gloves. Garbage bags will be provided.
• Lunch will be served to volunteers at the Battle Creek Recreation Center beginning at 11:30a.

Signs to the check-in sites will be posted in early April, so keep a look-out. This event will take place rain or shine. It will only be canceled if there is lightning or tornado warnings that morning. If you have any questions contact me - Sue Moyer - at 651.739.8027 or by email at spek1930@aol.com.

This event is co-sponsored by the Ramsey County and St. Paul Parks and Recreation Departments. Scout troops, church groups, park patrons, and community service project groups are all invited to help out. 

Submitted by Sue Moyer

Want Farm-Fresh Food in the Neighborhood?

If you are interested in having farm-fresh produce in the neighborhood, have you considered participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)? This is a way that you "buy in" to a particular farm's yearly harvest and then have a box of seasonally available food presented to you during the growing season at regular intervals. You basically pre-pay the farmer for a share of his/her harvest.

If this interests you, here is a list of potential participating CSA farms...

http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html

Tree Sale for Parks!

The Friends of the Parks and Trails of Saint Paul and Ramsey County is having its annual tree sale NOW!! You can purchase trees for your self or for the parks. They have native trees and shrubs, too, as well as some non-native species.

This year they are selling sugar maples, bicolor white oaks, black hills spruce, Kelsey crab, Butterflies magnolia, Nannyberry Vibernum and Honeycrisp Apple.

Amongst the shrubs, they are selling barberries, hydrangeas, dogwoods and Carefree Beauty Rose.

Prices range from $15 to $45 with orders taken until April 17. You can get an order blank and see about pick-ups at www.friendsoftheparks.org or by calling 651.698.4543.  We also have brochures and order forms outside the District 1 office (2090 Conway St.).

College Fair at Harding High School a Success!

On February 28, there was an opportunity for area high school students to start thinking about college - where they might go in the years ahead, how they can get there, and why it is important. Thanks to all the participating colleges and organizations, including Harding High School and Progressive Baptist Church for making this event a huge success!

KinderCare Celebrates Dr. Seuss!

As part of a celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday, KinderCare locations across Minnesota celebrated national reading night on Thursday March 5th.

At the Burns Avenue location in our own neighborhood, parents had the opportunity to learn more about the KinderCare curriculum, enrichment programs and talk with the teachers. The children had a wonderful time as well, reading three different Dr. Seuss books and doing a corresponding project or activity to go along with each. A great time was had by all. Thank you to all who came out! 

If you would like more information on KinderCare's programs, please visit us at 2070 Burns Ave. or call 651.731.1815 and ask for Katie or Erin.

submitted by Katie Johnson, Director

Marathon/Pigs Eye Update

Thanks to community input from both our neighborhood and Dayton's Bluff, the Zoning Board voted 4-1 to deny the conditional use permit and variances, and to disapprove the site plans that Marathon Petroleum had submitted to establish a railyard in the Pigs Eye area. (See our blogs from Dec 8, 2008 and Feb. 2, 2009). This railyard would have disrupted wetlands between Little Pigs Eye and Pigs Eye Lakes, and would have involved storing more hazardous materials below the 100 year flood level adjacent to the Mississippi River.

It is very likely that Marathon will appeal this ruling, so stay tuned. And you can continue to send comments to the Planning Commission about this project -- reference the Marathon Petroleum Railyard Proposal...

Send comments to:

St. Paul Planning Commission

25 W. 4th St.

St. Paul, MN 55102

Harding High School Beautification

On Thursday, February 26, neighborhood volunteers and students from Harding High School under the coordination of Hands On Twin Cities (a regional volunteer organization) came together to spruce up the school. In the process, they were also building new student leaders.

They painted peace murals, designed new wooden block hanging art, and took down and sorted the flags that were hanging in the front entryway.

Along the way, they made friends, built pride in the school and the community, and made an important statement about working together for all of us. 

Thanks to the students, the volunteers and to Hands On Twin Cities for this great project.

Parking Banned Along South Side of Highwood Ave.

Due to the narrow width of Highwood Avenue between Skyway Drive and Point Douglas Rd., the City has banned parking on the south side of the street. The equipment used to plow and to clean the street was having difficulty navigating the turns with parking on the street.

Although you may think it would make more sense to ban the parking on the north side where there are fewer houses, there are actually fewer LEGAL parking spots on the south side of the street. This is because of the law that people cannot park within 5 feet of a driveway and there are more driveways on the north side.

The no parking signs go up today (March 2)...

Mayor Proposes budget cut to District Councils

Mayor Coleman has proposed a 14% cut to the citizen participation contracts the City has with district councils. He is proposing to keep the crime prevention budgets the same. For District 1, the citizen participation budget represents about 62% of our total budget, and the city contracts are the greatest source of income we have (about 85-90% of our budget is our city contracts).

So this proposal is a significant blow to our organization - especially since the City has not increased its allocations to the district councils in at least 5 years... so we have been operating with decreasing income over that period already.

We are looking for ways to save money, but each option has a significant impact on what we will be able to do. Already this year we have had to cut staff hours. At this point our greatest savings would come from eliminating publication of the District 1 News - short of eliminating staff, which we will not do except as a very last resort.

Because of our location and because of the relatively high income levels of some of our residents, we are not eligible for the kinds of outside funding that district councils in the Central Corridor, or in the Invest St. Paul areas have access to.

The Mayor also does not seem to realize that district councils' citizen participation work is ALSO crime prevention work -- building community is the basis for safe neighborhoods, having residents feel as if they have some vested in their communities are both essential to crime prevention. In our case, our crime prevention dollars cannot cover all the work needed to do the crime prevention work we have.

These are tough economic times for everyone. We recognize that fact. But as cost effective as district councils are, this hardly seems the time to be shutting down a major means of communication between residents, our government, and the organizations that act as a safety net for us all.

More later on the actual proposal we will have to meet these challenges. In the meantime, make your priorities known to the Mayor and to the City Council.