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Logo Contest Results

Logo Contest Results

The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council held a logo contest in the run-up to its March meeting. At that meeting, all attendees were given the chance to vote on their favorite.

There were three strong submissions from residents Stan Burke, Joe Snodgrass and Liorah Wichser. Stan decided to emphasize Emerson-Garfield’s parks with a silhouette of children playing that ought to bring a smile to your face. Joe cleverly echoed the contours of a leaf in an old-fashioned streetlight so as to highlight the neighborhood’s mix of history and nature. Liorah focused on the historic aspect of the neighborhood by representing it through period typography and an antique-looking sign.

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In the end, it was Liorah’s submission that garnered the most votes. From now on you’ll start to see that logo on EGNC correspondence and across our social media presence (such as here on our blog and on our Twitter feed).

We hope to find other ways to integrate the other excellent logo submissions — for example, Stan’s would be great for our park-related news and events (and we hope to have a lot of those in the near future), and Joe’s would be ideal for matters that pertain to planning and N. Monroe revitalization.

March Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

March Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

[Ed. note: This is a condensed version of the official minutes, which are available for download here.]

The March Edition of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council came in like a lion at a couple of minutes after 7pm on March 13.

Chair Liorah Wichser started the meeting with a vote for a new logo for the Neighborhood Council. Three submissions had been submitted by three submittees, all of whom were present. A silent vote was taken and the winning logo was submitted by Liorah Wichser. It was a very fair vote and totally a coincidence that the Chair of the Committee has a name very similar to that of the the winning artist.

Thanks to Joe Snodgrass and Stan Burke for their artistic submissions. [Ed. note: All three logos will be featured in an upcoming post.]

Garbage Czar Karl Boldt spoke next and gave a report on the Neighborhood Clean-Up Day scheduled for Saturday, April 27 from 9am to 12:30pm. It will again be held in the parking lot of Faith Bible Church at 600 W Cora. There will be bins for garbage and clean green, just as in the past. In addition, there will be a recycling bin for metals of all kinds (other than radioactive) and an area for household hazardous waste. That means paint, chemicals and radioactive iridium 358. The Salvation Army will also be there to accept resellable items you would like to donate. [Ed. note: An upcoming post will have more information about Neighborhood Clean-Up Day.]

There will be a large furniture pick up scheduled for later in June. You need to register with Karl at (509) 325-3031.

Next was a brief update on the status of registering the group as a 501(c)(3) organization. Bylaws are being written up and a board of directors is going to be needed. The board will probably consist of 5 to 7 people and you can be one of them. Contact Liorah if you so desire.

Elections of new officers will be scheduled for next month. Liorah, E.J. and Stan are the nominating/railroading committee. Liorah has announced she is stepping down. E.J. has said he would like to become chair if no one else is so inclined, and Stan, your humble writer of minutes, will stay on for a fourth year if no one else wants the job, but he would also happily step aside. That means the vice chair and/or co-chair job is open and ready for someone like you. Contact anyone of the officers to submit yourself for electoral consideration.

The Corbin Senior Center has been buzzing with activity. The Luau was a great event. The 9th Movin’ & Groovin’ Fair was a happening event with 70 vendors, lots of great food and lots of people attending.

There will be a Pancake Breakfast on April 27 from 8:30 to 11am. Tickets are $7 per person and are available at the front desk or at the door the day of the event — so get some breakfast and then dump your garbage at the aforementioned Neighborhood Clean-Up.

Corbin and Emerson-Garfield will be holding a yard sale on May 11. The Corbin Golf Scramble will be at Indian Canyon on June 21 and sponsored by Pine Ridge Alzheimer’s Care Center.

The Neighborhood Planning Committee is still suffering from a woeful lack of attendance. Committee Chair Jay Cousins and one other person were at the last meeting. If you want a say in the future of how the neighborhood looks, the meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month at Corbin Senior Center. The next meeting is Thursday April 4 at 6pm. You should go.

Lt. Dean Sprague informed the group of the latest trends in crime in the neighborhood over the last month. There is all kinds of information available at www.spokanecops.org.

The Community Assembly met recently and discussed the stormwater/sewer project and heard a speech from the mayor.

In neighborhood news, Eline Helm is spearheading a Concert in the Park Series. Nothing is scheduled yet but this effort is underway and Eline would love more involvement.

Community Development rep Sara Kimball was not available but sent an update on sidewalks. Priorities are being organized for the 29 areas of concern. Not all areas will be addressed this year as funds (as always) are limited. The new swings in Corbin Park are in and two new horseshoe pits will be installed in the area of the old swing set. The new play equipment for Emerson Park has arrived and will be installed in late April.

The committee chose to recommend cross walks in the area of the Safeway store as the priority for our traffic calming projects.

With that, the meeting was adjourned at 9:12pm.

Materials for the Mar 13 EGNC Meeting

Materials for the Mar 13 EGNC Meeting

The next Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council Meeting will take place this Wednesday (March 13). As usual, it will start at 7pm and be held at the Corbin Senior Center.

You can get the materials (agenda, minutes for approval) on the Downloads page, or just download them here:

Some of the big agenda items include:

  • Announcement of traffic-calming voting results
  • Updates to the city’s Comprehensive Plan
  • Neighborhood spring cleanup
  • Updates to the city’s Comprehensive Plan
  • Review of submissions and voting on the neighborhood logo
  • Timing of election of new officers
  • COPS and planning committee reports
  • Nonprofit formation news

We hope to see you there!

Join (or Start) Your Nextdoor Neighborhood

Join (or Start) Your Nextdoor Neighborhood

Even with this blog, a Twitter feed, a city-hosted website, and a Facebook page, it’s not always easy for our neighborhood to come together and interact online.

A new social media website called Nextdoor is changing that. Think of it as a cross between Craigslist, Facebook, a classic Internet forum, and a community bulletin board. It’s geared exclusively to neighborhood needs such as broadcasting community events, posting items for sale (or free), addressing crime/safety concerns, soliciting ideas about how to make our neighborhood better, and more.

Nextdoor image

Two Nextdoor neighborhoods have already sprung up here in Emerson-Garfield.

If you live near Corbin Park, you can join the active Corbin Park Spokane neighborhood here on Nextdoor.

And if you live in Emerson-Garfield on the west side of Monroe, you can join the new Emerson-Gafield West neighborhood here on Nextdoor.

Some of the great things Nextdoor enables you to do:

  • Get to know your neighbors
  • Get local recommendations for a great babysitter, plumber or handyman
  • Look out for each other by sharing advice and reporting suspicious activity
  • Buy, sell, trade or give away items within your neighborhood
  • Get updates on community issues, plan neighborhood events

And if a Nextdoor neighborhood doesn’t exist for your immediate area, feel free to start one. By breaking our larger neighborhood down into smaller, more localized areas, we can help make the whole of Emerson-Garfield even better.

January Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

January Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap

In previous months, we’ve attempted to condense and convey the exciting events of each neighborhood council meeting by writing a dedicated blog post about it. This didn’t always happen due to time constraints, and it also meant duplicating work: both the author of the recap post and the EGNC secretary ended up putting the same event into different words.

So we’re trying something new to kick off 2013. The EGNC secretary will aim to get the meeting minutes drawn up in a timely manner, and those will then form the basis of the recap blog post. If it we can manage to stick to that routine, it will be great news for everyone (except maybe the secretary during ski season).

Here are some excerpted highlights. (For the full minutes, replete with banter and comic asides, please check the Downloads page):

Garbage Czar Karl Boldt started the agenda off with a report on our annual Clean Up Day, which is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 27. It will take place again at Faith Bible Church and will go from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm.

City Council Member Nancy McLaughlin reported on the antics of the City Council. Nancy spoke about Prop 1 (coming to a special election ballot near you!) that would place the Police Ombudsman position into the City Charter, hopefully leading to a more influential position for that office.

She also talked about Prop 2. This asks the citizens to change the city charter to require a 5/7 majority to raise all taxes in the future.

[Ed. Note: Apologies for the nature of the proposition links, which often direct to pages advocating for or against the respective proposition. Unfortunately, these were the only sources I could find that offered any additional information about the special election ballot measures.]

Nancy also talked about a tax levy for the library (aka Prop 3) on an upcoming ballot. She allowed Pat Partovi, Director of Library Services to talk more about the issue. They are asking for a levy that would dedicate funds to the library, 7¢ per $1,000.00 of assessed value. So, if your house is assessed at $100,000.00, you would pay an additional $7.00 a year. If your house is assessed at $200,000.00, you would pay $14.00 a year.

The special election will take place on February 12.

Nancy was about to relinquish the floor when she suddenly remembered to report on the animal control issue coming up before the City Council. The contract for animal control is going to change from Spokanimal to SCRAPS. That will probably take place in the coming week.

We are having a competition to design a logo for the neighborhood council. Anyone interested in trying to design a logo can submit a design to Chairwoman Liorah Wichser. At the next meeting, there will be a discussion about what the branding details a logo should include.

Liorah is starting a discussion about making the neighborhood council into a non-profit organization. Four neighborhoods are already non-profits so it is allowed by the city. There is a lot to consider and nobody really knows the pros and cons of taking on such an undertaking. It does entail a lot of paper work and we have not had a lot of volunteer participation in the past, and this would require a fair amount of commitment from a lot of people. A committee was formed to work on bylaws proposals.

Summer movie nights: Dave Musser was volunteered into heading the Summer Movie Committee. He will figure out the details of the committee and what it is they plan to do but he is planning for a movie in the park in July and August. Stay tuned for details.

Concerts in the park: Nothing is yet planned for concerts in Corbin or Emerson Parks. However, this is something that is high on our wish list.

Summer potluck: Liorah wants to put someone in charge of Summer Potluck in order to have a grander event. It is always a great event to bring new people out and a well planned event will hopefully bring even more people. Anyone interested in taking this on should talk to Liorah.

Corbin Senior Center: Laura Schlangen reported that 40 diners showed up for the Christmas Eve Luncheon. The new sign is up and can be seen and read at the corner of Grace and Lincoln. Corbin is sponsoring a Luau on February 15th. There are prizes for best costume. It’s $15 in advance or $18 at the door. Corbin’s largest fundraiser is the Movin’ and Groovin’ Fair on March 9th from 8am to 2pm.

Cop report: New Year’s Eve was a nightmare for the Spokane Police. There were shootings and stabbings and fireworks and parties. Thanks to all who didn’t participate in all that. Graffitti continues to be a problem and the police are looking into it. With regard to new laws, keep in mind that marijuana is still an illegal substance as far as the Federal Government is concerned. Paraphernalia is no longer illegal and if you get caught with a joint, the police are treating it as if you got caught with a beer. The police are not aggressively enforcing marijuana laws.