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Materials for the Jan. 9 EGNC Meeting

Materials for the Jan. 9 EGNC Meeting

In a break from recent custom, the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council is holding a meeting this month. It will take place on Wednesday, January 9 in the usual place (Corbin Senior Center) at the usual time (7pm). Brave the cold in exchange for the warm, fuzzy feeling of doing good for the neighborhood.

The agenda for the upcoming January 9 meeting and the minutes from last month’s meeting on December 12 are now available. Grab them on the “Downloads” page or just get them here:

We’ll be getting a head start on 2013 by discussing the ever-popular Spring Cleanup, planning for a summer concert series in Corbin and Emerson Parks, and suggesting possible logo/branding ideas for the neighborhood to snazz things up.

We look forward to seeing you there!

New Year’s Neighborhood Mailers

New Year’s Neighborhood Mailers

Residential households and businesses all over Emerson-Garfield have begun receiving neighborhood mailers over the past few days. They look like this:

Many of us found out about the neighborhood council and its activities through print mailings (like the sadly defunct West Central Community Newspaper), and it was important to make sure that we continued to spread the word about how to get involved. The more people who take a stake in this neighborhood, the better it will be for all of us.

Normally, the EGNC doesn’t have the money to cover the costs of a neighborhood-wide mailing like this one, which is why they aren’t sent out more regularly. Steps are being taken to increase the frequency of mailings in the future, but there are still limitations to what can be done with the available funding.

How to Apply for Street Trees & Sidewalks

How to Apply for Street Trees & Sidewalks

Of all the questions posed to the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council, some of the most common ones concern street trees and sidewalks. How do you get them if your house doesn’t already have them? How do you go about dealing with old/diseased/overgrown trees or repairing cracked/uneven sidewalks?

Both are projects that must be dealt with on the city level. The EGNC (like all neighborhood councils across Spokane) acts as an intermediary in many of these cases by helping you formulate your request in the right way and bringing your project to city’s attention.

For street trees, you can download this work order form (Word .doc), fill out the required fields, and submit it to the address provided. Our neighborhood council allocates a certain amount of funding for street trees every year, so if they are made aware of your request, they can try to ensure that there are sufficient funds.

If sidewalks are your concern, your best bet is to come to the next neighborhood council meeting (typically the second Wednesday of each month; see the calendar) and speak directly with the people who handle sidewalk installation and repair requests for the neighborhood.

Every spring, missing or defective sidewalks are documented by our neighborhood on a map provided by the city’s Engineering Department. Areas in need of new or repaired sidewalks are highlighted with marker pens on the map.

In recent years a small group has also walked the neighborhood and identified addresses that are in need of new or repaired sidewalks. These addresses are added to the map as well, and the whole thing is submitted back to the Engineering Department in late spring.

The city’s combined neighborhood sidewalk contract (in the $500,000 ballpark) goes out for bid and is awarded in early summer. If desired, the chosen contractor then walks the areas indicated on the map with the neighborhood rep to talk about the work to be done. Construction occurs in the late summer and early autumn. (And, yes, it does happen.)

If you have any other questions about sidewalks, streets trees, or neighborhood-related issues in general, please don’t hesitate to get in touch using our contact page.

Winter Potluck 2012

Winter Potluck 2012

The Emerson-Garfield winter potluck will take place on Wednesday, December 12 at 6pm at the Corbin Senior Center. If you live, work, or own property in the neighborhood, you’re invited!

We’re hoping that the attendance will be as high (or better yet, higher) as it was for the summer potluck back in August.

Got a favorite Christmas cookie recipe? A seasonal salad? Bring it along! Since we won’t have the added bounty of the community garden during the winter months, everyone is encouraged to bring a dish to ensure there’s enough food to go around.

The regularly scheduled neighborhood council meeting will follow at 7pm.

Hope to see you there!

Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap (Pt. 2)

Neighborhood Council Meeting Recap (Pt. 2)

Two weeks ago, we said we would be posting the second part of our recap — to include “recent crime hotspots, park improvements, a forthcoming mailer, and this year’s snow plow protocol” — the next day. That clearly didn’t happen. As is so often the case, day jobs and holidays had to take priority over blogging.

So, without further delay, let’s address those topics.

At this time of year, there is crime all over Emerson-Garfield — and indeed Spokane. Thieves take advantage of the reduced daylight hours and the holiday shopping frenzy. They will steal bikes, tools, toys, lawn ornaments, wiring, pets, children, old mattresses, rocks… in short, anything that’s not bolted to the floor of an underground steel bunker surrounded by a magical forcefield. And they will take your stuff to pawn shops or flea markets (not always locally) or try to hawk it online on Craigslist or eBay.

At November’s Neighborhood Council meeting, we heard from police that thieves were prowling alleyways in Emerson-Garfield and taking bolt cutters to garage padlocks. Your only real defense against this is increased vigilance. This means getting to know your neighbors, keeping an eye out on their behalf (and vice versa), and perhaps installing a video surveillance system or a motion-sensor light.

They’re also driving off with mid-’90s Hondas, since it’s easy to used shaved keys to jimmy their locks. (Good news? There’s apparently a fairly high recovery rate for stolen vehicles.) Any cars they can’t steal outright are targets for break-ins. If something that could be considered to be of any value is in sight, thieves will smash the window to get to it.

What else can you do, besides despair?

  • Hide or remove anything of value. Take your iPod charger inside with you. Don’t leave CDs, cassettes, or even 8-tracks on the front seat. Stow that ashtray full of parking-meter change.
  • If possible, note the serial number of the item. All pawn shops in the area have to upload the serial numbers of incoming items into a database every night. The police then cross-reference this database with reported stolen goods.
  • Report the stolen item. This is essential. Even if you think there isn’t much chance of getting your stolen item back, or that the police don’t care, it’s important that you at least try. If the police don’t know of the theft, they can’t investigate it. And if they also don’t know where thefts are occurring, they can’t assign any of their limited resources to that area.

As for park improvements: The new swingset is ready to be installed in Emerson Park. It might have to wait until spring. At any rate, it will bring a much-needed feature to the traditionally more neglected of Emerson-Garfield’s two parks. Corbin will also be getting a swingset, as previously noted here.

Both Corbin and Emerson now have electrical drop-boxes — which means the ability to hold concerts, movie nights, and all sorts of entertainment. Now all that’s needed is the people to make those events happen.

The neighborhood is looking to send out a print mailer in the near future. Here are some of the suggestions for what it should contain:

  • Sign up for e-mail newsletter
  • Invite to annual holiday potluck (Dec 12)
  • General news about the EGNC
  • Call for video submissions (for a proposed neighborhood movie)
  • Neighborhood survey
  • Call for sidewalk, trees and street improvement requests
  • Alert residents and business of this website
  • Plowing information

If you have any of your own suggestions about what you’d like to see on the mailer, please leave a comment or get in touch.

On the subject of the last of those bullet points, there’s a snow plowing protocol. Although most people ignore it, it still exists. And there’s every indication that the city is getting fed up with folks who flout that protocol — which means, among other things, that your car will be towed away at your expense.

During even years, park your car on the even (usually north or east) side of the streets when plowing is taking place. During odd years, park your car on the odd (usually south or west) side of the street. Opt to ignore it and you risk a $200 ticket and/or towing and/or the plow driver taking justifiable pleasure in trapping your car within a fortress of plowed snow and ice that will not melt until spring.

Despite the busy holiday season and year-end workload, we’ll try to have regular news and event updates. Most important among them: the annual holiday potluck on Wednesday, December 12. It’s at Corbin Senior Center and will start at 7pm. Mark your calendars!