Emerson Garfield

Building Dreams Charity Event (May 10) & Raffle Tickets

April 21, 2014 Emerson Garfield

The West Central Community Center (1603 N. Belt) will be hosting its Building Dreams charity event on Saturday, May 10 at 6pm.

Building Dreams is a really fun and worthwhile concept. It began last year as Project Playhouse Spokane, whereby members of the Spokane Home Builders Association designed, built and donated twelve children’s playhouses. The money that was raised at auction on these playhouses helped to fund youth programs at the WCCC and other community centers around Spokane.

This year they’ve changed the name and expanded the auction to include doghouses, playhouses, dollhouses, outdoor structures, and other great designs. And once again the money will support the programs at these valuable community centers.

A preview of one of this year’s playhouses is pictured below. It’s a sheriff’s office — complete with a solar panel and lights, wanted posters, and a working jail cell.

Tickets for this event are $40 each or $400 per table. Click here to be whisked away to the purchase page.

But you don’t have to buy an event ticket to take part! Instead you can enter to win the sheriff’s office playhouse pictured above by purchasing a raffle ticket for just $1 at the following area Rosauers:

Tuesday, April 22, 10am to 2pm – Rosauers on the South Hill (2610 E 29th)
Wednesday, April 23, 10am to 2pm – Rosauers at 5 Mile (1724 W Francis)
Thursday, April 24, 10am to 2pm – Rosauers at the Y (9414 N Division)
Friday, April 25, 10am to 2pm – Rosauers at Browne’s Addition (1808 W 3rd)

Raffle tickets are also available at:

West Central Community Center: (509) 326-9540
Northeast Youth Center (3004 E Queen): (509) 482-0708
Peaceful Valley Community Center (214 N Cedar): (509) 624-8634

Building Dreams’ partners to date include Councilmen Salvatori, Allen and Fagan, the Spokane Home Builders Association, Rosauers Supermarkets, The Spokesman-Review, Fox 28, the Kalispel Tribe, Avista, Baker Construction, Beacon Hill Events, Bozzi Media, CH2M Hill, Pearson Packaging Systems, Red Lion Hotels, Zak! Designs and Sterling Bank.

This year Jeff Philipps, President and CEO of Rosauers Supermarkets, will be receiving the first annual “Dream Builder” Award.

Spring Workshop: Meetings That Don’t Suck (Apr 26)

April 21, 2014 Emerson Garfield

[EDIT: This workshop has been cancelled due to low response rates.]

Building Stronger Neighborhoods will be hosting its Spring Workshop, titled Planning and Running Meetings That Don’t Suck (and Instead Are Awesome), ~~on Saturday, April 26 from 9am to noon~~ at the East Central Community Center (500 S Stone).

The workshop will give you simple tools to plan and run great meetings that will move your project forward. That means using consensus to reach agreement and share power, sharpening your ability to prevent and deal with challenging situations and personalities, and strengthening your group through clear decision-making and roles.

Liz Moore, Director of the Peace and Justice Action League, will be presenting. It promises to be hands-on and engaging rather than an intro-level course on running a meeting.

Coffee and snacks will be provided. Doors open at 8:30am.

To confirm your attendance, please contact Jackie Caro at (509) 625-6733 or jcaro@spokanecity.org.

Photos from the Tree Planting on N. Maple

April 19, 2014 Emerson Garfield

The tree-planting crew.

Melissa scoops mulch into the wheelbarrow.

Bryce digs in to the pile of compost.

Angel and Stacy catch up.

The line of new trees next to N. Maple.

Tim fills out a treegram.

Loni rakes some compost around a tree.

Jim, Bert and Tim figure out who’s next on shovel duty.

Bryce and Alicia fill a wheelbarrow with mulch.

Andy and Bert deal with the shrinking pile of compost.

Andy of Spokane Urban Forestry gives some tips and instructions.

Jackie shovels some compost.

Jigmed wheels some mulch to where it’s needed.

Jim and his young assistant

Volunteers of all ages came to help.

Linda spreads some compost around a tree.

Loni is having a lot of fun spreading compost.

Jackie fills out a treegram.

Loni and Karl tend to a tree.

Angel of Spokane Urban Forestry and Nancy MacKerrow of the Susie Forest.

Bryce fills a wheelbarrow with mulch.

Stacy rakes out compost.

A treegram hangs from one of the branches.

Jim signs the MoU.

Tim and Bryce fill a wheelbarrow with mulch.

Jim and Tim talk trees.

Karl hauls some compost.

A treegram hangs from one of the branches.

Disused Car Wash on NW Blvd

April 17, 2014 Emerson Garfield

A W Carlisle resident has asked the neighborhood to draw its attention to the disused car wash on NW Boulevard:

Between the garbage being dumped there, the graffiti, and the fact that it is literally falling apart, I was wondering if there is anyone we could contact about cleaning it up or having it removed or something. Something, anything, needs to be done about this. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve seen shady activity there on the way to taking my kids to school each day, and I just feel it’s a public safety hazard, especially being so close to a school like that.

The property she’s referring to is pictured below.

Beyond simply pointing out the problem, she has also taken some initial steps to address it:

I contacted the city and got a reply back from Michelle Hecker of the Code Enforcement department. She is going to use my e-mails as a formal complaint and will hopefully be sending someone out to look it over. She also attached a PDF of complaint form, if anyone else would be interested in filling it out and filing a complaint as well that might help get things going faster.

That code enforcement complaint form can be downloaded here or on the Code Enforcement website.

Please support this effort by filling out the form to address this particular property (and any other properties that are in flagrant violation of code) and submitting it to Michelle at mhecker@spokanecity.org or Emerson-Garfield’s assigned code officer, Dan Poulson. He can be reached at dpolson@spokanecity.org or (509) 625-6066.

Petunia’s Flower & Chocolate Festival (Apr 19)

April 16, 2014 Emerson Garfield

It’s all going off in Emerson-Garfield this Saturday (April 19).

In addition to the Pancakes ‘n’ More breakfast at the Corbin Senior Center from 7:30 to 10:30am and the street-tree planting event on N. Maple from 8:30am to noon, Petunia’s Marketplace (2010 N Madison) will be holding a Flower and Chocolate Festival from 9am to 5pm. So why not make a neighborhood day of it?

As the flyer above says, there will be handmade chocolate Easter bunnies; seasonal lilies, flowers and herbs; antiques; and a wine and chocolate tasting between 1 and 5pm.

By the way, Petunia’s now carries local milk from Pure Éire Dairy in gallons and half-gallons. That means there’s now even more reason to stop in on a regular basis.