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E-G Boundary Expansion

E-G Boundary Expansion

At its November meeting the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council voted to approve a boundary expansion to include land ceded by the Northwest Neighborhood Association.

The NWNA was not seeing any representation from this peninsular area on their southern border and felt that this was because it was a more natural geographical fit for Emerson-Garfield.

E-G expansion

Starting from the intersection of Fairview and Ash, the rough boundary continues west to Cochran, southwest across the Meenach Bridge, further south along the Pettit Drive Ridge (aka Doomsday Hill) to Indiana, then east on Indiana to Belt, and finally Belt north to Fairview. A map of the area is above.

To all the home and businesses (including Pete’s Pizza) that now find themselves within E-G’s expanded borders, welcome to the neighborhood!

Neighborhood-wide Planting (Nov 15) Cancelled

Neighborhood-wide Planting (Nov 15) Cancelled

We’ve put this news out via other channels — namely, Facebook, Twitter and at Wednesday’s EGNC meeting — but wanted to spread the word here too: The neighborhood-wide planting scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday, November 15) has been cancelled on account of the freezing temperatures.

This was supposed to bring street trees to an entire stretch of N Atlantic and a full block of N Stevens along with hardy native bushes to a traffic median on N Maple, but the ground is frozen both in the nursery as well as at the planting locations.

If you’re interested, some background on the nature and scope of the plantings is available here.

The good news is that the planting will be rescheduled for the spring, and it will be a much larger event with a fun educational component about the care and maintenance of trees. Thanks to all those who were prepared to volunteer and assist with this planting, and we hope your enthusiasm will hold out until spring.

Materials for the Nov 12 E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

Materials for the Nov 12 E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

We’re rapidly approaching the second Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time for another Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting. It takes place tomorrow (November 12) starting at 6pm in the Corbin Senior Center (827 W Cleveland).

This month we’ll be hearing — no, really this time — from Tim Schwering, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Spokane Police Department, about the practicalities and policies of police body cameras. This is all the more topical in light of this weekend’s car chase across the north side that ended in a nonfatal officer-involved shooting at the 2200 block of N Post here in E-G. The officer’s body camera was not on at the time.

The major agenda item is the allocation of just shy of $55,000 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to our neighborhood. As discussed at the October meeting, an ad hoc neighborhood CDBG committee met at Gerardo’s and developed a proposal to split the money in the following ways: $20,000 toward N. Monroe revitalization (in conjunction with the STA), $30,000 toward sidewalk installation and repair, and the remainder to neighborhood nonprofits. This proposal will be discussed and refined by everyone in attendance, then approved by voting members.

To that end, we’ll be hearing brief CDBG-related presentations and requests from the STA, The Lands Council (in partnership with Fulcrum) and the West Central Community Center. George Dahl, Human Services Manager at City of Spokane, will be on hand to answer questions about the possibilities and limits of funding.

This meeting could run a bit longer than usual, but we will aim to finish around 8pm. Considered, forward-thinking allocation of CDBG funding is important, so it’s worth the extra time.

As always, the EGNC welcomes everyone and anyone who has a stake in our neighborhood, whether you’re a resident (renter or homeowner), a business owner, a church leader, head of a nonprofit, or you have a child who attends one of the many schools in Emerson-Garfield.

You can download the November 12 meeting materials as PDFs here:

And if you’re on Facebook, you can RSVP for the neighborhood council meeting on the event page.

Roundabouts Begin on W Montgomery

Roundabouts Begin on W Montgomery

The barriers and detour that have suddenly sprung up on the stretch of W Montgomery between N Monroe and Northwest Boulevard mark the start of construction for the traffic circles (aka roundabouts) that will help to abate speeding.

The chain-link fence in the left of the photo below has been taken out twice in recent years due to speeders.

Start of W Montgomery roundabouts

This post from August shows the engineering designs and also contains links to the long but fairly smooth history of this project. W Montgomery residents and Trinity Catholic School will be helping to landscape and maintain the roundabouts once they’re completed.

As an important side note, this is being paid for through Photo Red dollars (the fines handed out for running red lights), not tax dollars, and it was entirely resident-proposed. Which is to say, if you’re not happy with the traffic situation on your own street, you can put available funding to good use and do something about it.

E-G Farmers’ Market Season Finale (Oct 17)

E-G Farmers’ Market Season Finale (Oct 17)

The cider press in action.The Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market got a nice writeup in today’s Spokesman-Review — just in time for tomorrow’s (Friday, October 17) season finale.

In addition to the usual vendor lineup — which now includes Chattaroy Cheese Co. — here’s what the market has in store for this season-closing event:

  • A one-time vendor will be selling Davenport-area organic Fuji apples and Bosc pears for just 75¢ per pound. (Compare that with Safeway’s $2.99 per pound for non-local, non-organic apples.)
  • An old-fashioned cider press to juice apples that you’ve either brought or bought. Don’t forget to bring a jug!
  • A balloon animal maker for the kids.
  • Members of Corbin Senior Activity Center and the Women and Children’s Free Restaurant will get a free jar of spiced apple jelly for coming down and joining us.
  • This also marks the last Friday of the year that Spokane Hope Christian Reformed Church will be preparing authentic Korean food alongside the market to eat in or take out.
  • Plus music, hay bales, and the bittersweet farewell that comes with the end of the season.

If you’re on Facebook, please RSVP to the event. We hope you’ll stop by and join us!