Fall Interns begin at the Storefront

We have at least 10 new interns from Century College's Law Enforcement program putting in hours at the Police Storefront - the District Council's co-habitant at the SunRay office. The students are future police officers, corrections or probation officers.

These students are in the "Police and the Community" class, a class that requires 40 hours of volunteer activity at a community organization. This collaboration allows us to have more hours that the office is open, and gives the students a chance to meet with police officers and talk to community members about their concerns. They answer phones, meet with folks walking in, and refer people to the proper resources. They free up our regular staff for other projects as well.

The Saint Paul Police Storefront is a joint project of the District 1 Community Council and the Saint Paul Police Department. You can reach the Storefront by calling 651.578.7400.

Welcome to our interns and THANK YOU for your service!!

Land Use Meeting on Pawn Shop Proposal

Our regular September land use committee meeting will include a presentation by the owners and architects of Max-it Pawn who want to put in a pawn shop at 373 Ruth St. They submitted a proposal to the city earlier and it was denied because of its proximity to residential areas, specifically the Heritage Estates apartments.

They want to come back and talk with the committee and the community about who they are and what they want to do with this corner in order to see if it is worth their while to resubmit their application.

Join us at the Conway Rec Center, 2090 Conway St., on Tuesday September 14, 5:30p for this meeting. These folks will be second on our agenda, so probably around 6:15 or so.

Call our office for more information - 651.578.7600.

Senior Legal Fair

Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) is holding a free senior legal fair at the Saint Paul River Center on September 22 from 8:15a - 3p. They will be talking about the Future of Senior Health Care - Law and Medicine and have presentations on employment issues, preparing a will, identity theft and scams, and debt collection and bankruptcy, among other topics. There will be free and private consultations with attorneys from 1:30-3p.

There is also the opportunity for free simple wills, but you must register by September 1 by calling 651.788.8451.

This is a good opportunity for elders to find out about how to set up legal protections for themselves and their estates.

National Night Out at Faith Alliance

Here are some photos from the big community event at Faith Alliance Church (520 N. Howard) on National Night Out. They had over 250 people attend, so between this large event and the one at Afton View Apartments, over 500 people in the district were whooping it up on August 3.

And that doesn't even count all the other events that were happening in our area! Pam McCreary estimates that over 1000 District 1 residents were partying on the 3rd!

There was lots of good food there and the Hmong congregation made egg rolls. So the egg rolls were added to Tony's pizza, Culver's frozen custard, Brueggers bagels and good old hot dogs. Check out the egg roll operation though!

National Night Out in D1

(Sorry it's been a while since I posted - I was on vacation...)

We had two very large really spectacular events for National Night Out in the neighborhood. One was at Faith Alliance Church at 520 N. Howard. This event drew at least 250 people and had great food from Culvers, Anthony's Pizza, Brueggers Bagels, and the folks at the church. There were also events for kids.

At Afton View and Shamrock Courts Apartments, there was another large event with another 250 people or so. This event had sub sandwiches, visits from HealthEast, Head Start and the police and fire departments. There were games for the kids here, too, and it was also a celebration of the redesigned parklands at Highwood Hills Elementary/Rec Center.

Here are a few pictures from Afton View. I am going to try to pull together the great photos sent by Faith Alliance and my humble attempts at Afton View and post them on Facebook, so check that out next week...

Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers. And congratulations to the block clubs who sponsored at least 16 other parties - a large increase from last year's participation...

Fall Festival

St. Pascal Baylon Catholic Church and School has its annual Fall Festival on Sunday, September 26 from 11:30a to 5p. Come and join the fun, including our home cooked spaghetti dinner, bingo, children's games, a cake walk, raffles, the Festival General Store, tacos, football and more.

The festival will be held at 1757 Conway St. at White Bear Avenue and 3rd Street.