Info – Page 34 – Emerson-Garfield Community

Help Us Find a Rocking Chair for K

March 5, 2014 Emerson Garfield

[UPDATE: K got the furniture she was after. Thanks to all those who considered donating.]

A longtime resident of Emerson-Garfield is leaving the neighborhood after nearly half a century.

Kizuyo — who acquired the nickname “K” many years ago because her name was too difficult for her employer to pronounce — first made her home in this neighborhood in 1968. She’s a former librarian, a cancer survivor, and a woman who’s proud of the independence she’s maintained into her ninth decade.

If you live near the southwest corner of the neighborhood, you will probably have seen her walking to and from Safeway on a regular basis. If you ever visited the Corbin Senior Center, there’s a good chance she was there doing puzzles.

As she prepares to move into a smaller apartment across town, she mentioned that she’s looking for a sofa or a rocking chair “with big arms” to replace the furniture she can’t take with her.

If anyone from Emerson-Garfield has any items along these lines to offer K, please leave a comment below or get in touch. It would be nice to see her leave with something from Emerson-Garfield beyond her forty-six years of memories.

N. Monroe Traffic Presentation

March 1, 2014 Emerson Garfield

Below is a YouTube movie of the presentation on N. Monroe given by Bob Turner, Senior Traffic Engineer for the City of Spokane, at February’s Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting.

It contains statistics such as average daily vehicle counts and vehicle speed as well as a ten-year retrospective of collisions and pedestrian fatalities. Some of the figures might be surprising, even if they do seem to be at odds with our day-to-day experience on N. Monroe.

Toward the end there’s a list of conclusions that can be drawn (or not) from the available data. Some of the recommendations and concerns tie in to Emerson-Garfield’s current Neighborhood Planning effort.

The individual slides should be fairly self-explanatory. If they aren’t, we can try to address your specific questions in the comments below.

Neighborhood Council Elections and Call for Reps

February 20, 2014 Emerson Garfield

In April the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council (EGNC) will be holding elections for the following officer positions:

Chair
Vice-chair
Secretary
Treasurer

These positions are all currently occupied but should not go uncontested. If you are interested in running, please put your name forward at the next neighborhood council meeting on Wednesday, March 12. Keep in mind that you must be a voting member to throw your hat into the ring — which means you will need to have attended three EGNC meetings in the past six months.

Emerson-Garfield is also looking for representatives to become involved in groups that are important to the neighborhood. These include:

Pedestrian Traffic and Transportation Committee (PeTT)
Building Stronger Neighborhoods — focuses on neighborhood info and outreach
Community Assembly — a powwow of representatives from all neighborhoods across Spokane
Land Use Committee
Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board
Community Housing and Human Services (CHHS) — handles Community Development Block Grant funding
North Monroe Business Association

All of these volunteer groups generally involve a nominal time commitment of just one meeting per month. Ideally you would also attend the monthly neighborhood council meeting to keep EGNC members apprised of relevant issues and opportunities.

If you’d like to be the neighborhood rep for any of these groups (or co-rep; there’s no reason why two or three people couldn’t share a single responsibility), please speak up at the next neighborhood council meeting or get in touch beforehand. If you’re already involved in one of them and you happen to work or reside in E-G, let us know that too!

These unelected positions are just as essential as the elected officer positions. It’s important for Emerson-Garfield to have a voice as these groups develop citywide plans and policy for the future, and it’s equally important for E-G residents to be kept informed of how those plans and policies are taking shape over time.

STCU Contest: Nominate Your Favorite Nonprofit

February 19, 2014 Emerson Garfield

You’ve got one day left to nominate your favorite local nonprofit as part of STCU’s Who Do You Love? contest. To do so, just fill out the simple form on this page or visit STCU’s Facebook page by tomorrow (February 20).

For those who are unfamiliar with the Who Do You Love? contest, STCU annually donates a total of $5,000 to be divided among the top three vote-getting nonprofits in our community. First, nonprofit organizations have to be nominated. The ten eligible organizations that receive the most nominations will then move to the voting round, which runs February 22 to 28 in 2014.

The winners will be announced by KREM-TV as soon as Monday, March 3. The victors will divvy the spoils as follows:

1st place: $2500
2nd place: $1500
3rd place: $1000

We received word of this great opportunity from Spokane C.O.P.S., which would make an ideal candidate for nomination. Some other nonprofits deserving of nomination for their involvement with the neighborhood would include Project Hope, Catholic Charities, the West Central Community Center, the Women and Children’s Free Restaurant and the Emerson Community Garden.

Materials for the February 12 EGNC Meeting

February 10, 2014 Emerson Garfield

We know the snow is knee deep in places, but there are 101 (count ’em) reasons to brave the winter weather and make it to the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting on Wednesday, February 12. It starts promptly at 7pm in the Corbin Senior Center (827 W Cleveland).

At this meeting the EGNC will be taking sidewalk and traffic-calming requests. This means that if you have sidewalk that is missing or in need of repair outside your home, business, church or other property, you should be there to mark the spot on a map and help rank these proposals in terms of priority before submitting them to the city.

There will also be guest speakers with useful and interesting information on a variety of topics, including pedestrian and traffic studies on N. Monroe, energy-efficient home improvement options, news and thanks from the West Central Community Center, and a proposed law enforcement partnership to reduce underage drinking.

Plus there’s the usual slew of announcements and updates, reports on the significant progress among the Neighborhood Planning effort and how that will make the leap into implementation, check-ins from the Spokane Police and COPS, and news on changes to Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) eligibility.

Download the February 12 meeting materials for approval here: