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Greening Grants: Street Trees on W Mansfield

Greening Grants: Street Trees on W Mansfield

As part of the City’s current round of Greening Grants, volunteers from the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council recently convened in Emerson Park and identified streets in the neighborhood that were lacking trees. One area that came up (and has come up at least once before) is West Mansfield.

The Office of Neighborhood Services and Spokane Urban Forestry pulled together some data that identified existing trees and showed where new trees might be planted. Those annotated maps are shown in the gallery below.

Mansfield 200-300
Mansfield 200-300
Mansfield 300-400
Mansfield 300-400
Mansfield 400
Mansfield 400
Mansfield 500
Mansfield 500
Mansfield 500-600
Mansfield 500-600
Mansfield 600
Mansfield 600
Mansfield 700
Mansfield 700
Mansfield 700-800
Mansfield 700-800
Mansfield 1200
Mansfield 1200

If you live or own property on the portions of W Mansfield depicted in these aerial views, you will likely have received a letter from the City with a return postcard allowing you to accept or decline the free Greening Grants street trees.

We encourage you to fill out the card and mail it back — preferably with your consent to plant! Like the letter says, these trees come at no cost to you. The only obligation is to water them sufficiently to get them established after planting.

The benefits of trees should be self-evident. They shade your house during oppressively hot weather like this. They act as a wind buffer in the winter. They beautify your street and even add value to your home. And they’ve even been shown to help slow speeding traffic. (Here’s a good rundown with these and other reasons.) So if you were on the fence before, we hope you’ll choose to plant and help green the neighborhood!

Recap of the June E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

Recap of the June E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

The meeting started with a brief announcement from Julie Banks, Community Development Director at the YMCA of the Inland Northwest, who said that the Y is hosting a Summer Meals Program in Corbin Park. The meal program will serve breakfast and lunch to any child 18 years old or younger from Monday, June 22 to Friday, August 14. Julie asked that the neighborhood help raise awareness about the program so that no child goes hungry.

Councilwoman Candace Mumm reported on issues under discussion by the City Council. A new parking ordinance is being proposed that will require fewer parking spaces for small businesses; a public hearing on the matter will be held at the City Council meeting on Monday, June 22.

Councilwoman Mumm also noted that a decency clause regarding adult entertainment might also spill over into the area of adult coffee shops. North Hill Neighborhood Council is almost finished with their neighborhood plan, and they intend to revitalize Garland Street as well as preserve the bluff. A southern portion of Northwest Neighborhood will become the Audubon/Downriver Neighborhood. Letters to the editor regarding Monroe Street revitalization are still encouraged.

Shanna Cejka, the neighborhood parent liaison to Spokane Public Montessori at Havermale, and Olga Lucia Herrera, a grant applicant and Montessori parent, announced that they were successful in soliciting Spokefest funding for a Bicycle Laboratory. The lab would be housed at the school; older students would learn to repair bikes and teach bike safety. The school would like to hold bike-related events in conjunction with Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council.

Amy Dutton reported on proposed Greening Grant locations for autumn plantings in the neighborhood. The traffic triangles at Northwest Boulevard and Monroe Street are potential locations. For residential areas, planting strips must be at least four feet wide. All locations must either have direct access to water and/or a volunteer neighbor or business to commit to watering duties.

The majority of neighborhood council members voted to forego the July neighborhood council meeting. The next EGNC meeting will therefore be on Wednesday, August 12 as part of the Summer Potluck in Corbin Park. The entire neighborhood is welcome to attend the potluck for food and socializing.

Bri Musser has plants for the traffic circle at the intersection of Montgomery and Madison. Others volunteered to help. Jackie Caro from the Office of Neighborhood Services reported on the other traffic circle, which was recently planted by Trinity Catholic School. The traffic island at N Maple is scheduled to have sidewalks installed this year, and another Ponderosa Pine will be planted there as well.

The Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market opened last week, and sales showed a 50% improvement over last year’s opening event. It is encouraging to see EBT clients making use of the incentive programs like Fresh Bucks. Broken Whistle, the band that will be performing at this year’s Concert in the Park, played the opening market. Future market activities and events include a water conservation demo on June 12, a garden pest information session on June 19, and a hydroponic gardening demo on June 26. Starting Friday, July 10, the Kids Eating Right Nutrition and Education for Life (KERNEL) program will have a different kid-friendly activity each week and will reward participants with tokens to use at the market. Several sponsors have stepped forward, but some are still needed!

Friends of Emerson Park will meet at the park on Saturday, June 13, at 6:30pm.

Laura Schlangen reported on the Corbin Senior Activity Center. Their Madhatter’s Tea Party had 100 attendees. The 6th Annual Golf Scramble had more sponsors and players than ever. Corbin’s Boutique, a secondhand store, is requesting donations, which can be dropped off at the time of the Emerson-Garfield meeting. The Munch and Mingle Auction will take place on Saturday, September 19, and tickets will be sold at the end of June. An upcoming bus trip to Las Vegas, Zion and the Grand Canyon will cost only $838.

A large portion of the meeting involved discussing how Photo Red revenue is allocated. Up to now, Photo Red funding — which comes entirely from fines paid by drivers who run red lights — has been available exclusively for traffic-calming projects such at the traffic circles on W Montgomery. Recently, however, changes have been proposed that would increase the available annual funds for each district to $150,000 (up from $100,000) and use surplus revenue (including anticipated future revenue) as seed money to attract matching grants for more ambitious projects.

The EGNC conducted a vote on the issue; the consensus was to uphold Councilman Jon Snyder’s proposal, summarized as follows by Paul Kropp in a recent PeTT Committee e-mail:

… leveraging unallocated photo-red revenue to make local matching funds available in a significant amount to use for grant applications to secure engineering and construction funding of larger scale community street or trail projects.

Additional details on this issue as well as the vote tally of the neighborhood council will be available in the meeting minutes (once approved) and a forthcoming blog post from Emerson-Garfield’s PeTT representative.

As a final order of business, Barb Biles reported on Land Use Committee topics, including the six-month moratorium on the building of cell-phone towers in residential zones while the zoning issue is analyzed.

Photos from the Trinity Traffic-Circle Planting

Photos from the Trinity Traffic-Circle Planting

Here are some photos from this morning’s traffic-circle planting at Trinity Catholic School. This is the first of two plantings that will beautify these residential traffic-calming projects on W Montgomery.

Trinity Catholic School Traffic-Circle Planting, June 10
Trinity Catholic School Traffic-Circle Planting, June 10
Trinity Catholic School Traffic-Circle Planting, June 10
Trinity Catholic School Traffic-Circle Planting, June 10
Trinity Catholic School Traffic-Circle Planting, June 10
Trinity Catholic School Traffic-Circle Planting, June 10

With the help of teachers, parents and neighbors, the students planted coneflower (aka echinacea), blue fescue and some tall grasses that are also drought-resistant, so they’re as practical as they are pretty.

Similar flowers and grasses will be planted at the circle at the intersection of Madison and Montgomery — stop by tonight’s neighborhood council meeting to find out how you can volunteer to help plant.

Materials for the June 10 E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

Materials for the June 10 E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

The Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meets tomorrow (Wednesday, June 10) at 6pm in the Corbin Senior Center (827 W Cleveland).

Unless the council votes otherwise, this will be the last meeting before the neighborhood-wide Summer Potluck on August 12, so it’s a good idea to attend and keep up to date on all that’s happening before the summer hiatus.

This month’s guest speaker is representatives from Spokane Public Montessori at Havermale, who’ll be talking about their new Bicycle Laboratory grant and the spring bike-centric event they’d like to plan along with the help of the neighborhood council. As Summer Parkways has decided to re-focus their efforts on the South Hill, this is a pleasant coincidence and could bring a similar event back to Emerson-Garfield.

Next we’ll talk about some of the preliminary locations the Greening Grant committee has identified for autumn plantings. That’ll be followed by rounding up some volunteers for the Summer Potluck as well as the traffic-circle plantings on Montgomery — which have been a long time coming.

There will be a brief recap of how the season opener of the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market went, and we’ll also hear about the sidewalks that are scheduled to be installed on the N Maple traffic island later this summer. After a few more odds and ends (including whether or not we want to meet in July), we’ll close with the usual roundup of reports from neighborhood reps who are keeping up to date on citywide issues like crime, planning and land use that are affecting or could affect Emerson-Garfield.

As always, we ask you to keep our printing expenses low and download the materials beforehand as PDFs:

The neighborhood council is open to anyone who lives, works or owns property in Emerson-Garfield and homeowners as well as renters are encouraged to come to these meetings. We regularly see attendance of 40+ people from all over the neighborhood, and there are no dues, fees or other obligations to participate.

It’s a great way to stay informed, meet your neighbors and take an active, grassroots role in shaping your neighborhood for the better!

Recap of the May E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

Recap of the May E-G Neighborhood Council Meeting

This is a recap of the Emerson-Garfield Neighborhood Council meeting that took place on Wednesday, May 13, 2015.

The guest speakers for the month were Julie Oliver and Lisa Woodard of the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency. The agency has been around since 1967. It is responsible for issuing permits, performing on-site inspections, responding to citizen complaints regarding issues such as outdoor burning, and regulating asbestos safety.

Julie and Lisa reported that the main air pollutants in Spokane are particulate matter (PM) and ozone. Inhalable coarse particles are found near roadways and in dust storms, whereas fine particles are a result of outdoor burning. To reduce PM, they incentivize the removal of old woodstoves. Ground-level ozone is commonly referred to as smog, and can give your lungs the equivalent of a sunburn. One method to reduce ozone is vapor recovery at gas stations that have a high throughput and are close to residential areas, such as Safeway on NW Blvd. Ozone can be at its highest on hot days (over 90°), so it’s best to switch to an electric or battery-powered mover or cut your grass on cooler days.

You can check whether outdoor burning is permitted on the agency’s website (linked above).

Jonathan Martinez volunteered to represent the neighborhood on the Public Safety Committee as part of their initiative to address landlord and tenant issues. Almost 50% of the population of Emerson-Garfield rents, which makes it all the more important to have a neighborhood voice on this committee.

Al Steuart highlighted the events that will be featured at the Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market throughout the summer, starting on Friday, June 5. If you have any clean compost, including leaves, Al would like to use it. You can reach him on (760) 223-0161. Any extra compost will be used for the Emerson Community Garden.

At the market, the KERNAL program proposed by Catholic Charities is looking for sponsors to help them cover the cost of materials. Kids will be taught fun skills such as how to compost, how to make their own jump-ropes, and will receive tokens to exchange for vegetables. The South Perry Farmers Market found this program to be very successful last year. If you’d like to help Steve Anderson campaign for business sponsors, which will receive recognition and advertising, please contact him.

The Emerson-Garfield Farmers’ Market also recently announced the winners of its annual poster competition. This year’s participating neighborhood schools were Trinity Catholic School and Spokane Public Montessori.

Timothy Diko and Melissa Parker reported on this year’s Concert in the Park. It will be on Sunday, August 2 in Emerson Park, starting at 6pm. Broken Whistle will be performing.

If you are interested in forming a group to advocate for events and improvements on behalf of Emerson Park, contact Steve Anderson (e-mail linked above).

Amy Dutton reported that the Greening Grant Committee will meet on Friday, May 29 at 6pm at Emerson Park. Anyone interested in selecting locations for future tree plantings and beautification efforts is encouraged to attend.

Steve Anderson has arranged a 10% discount at Gibson’s Nursery & Landscape (1401 S Pines) for all Emerson-Garfield residents. Proof of ID is required to receive the discount. Bulk purchases could receive as high as a 15% discount. He is working on coordinating similar discounts for E-G residents at other area nurseries.

Candace Mumm offered a report from the Spokane City Council. The revitalization of N Monroe Street has seen some additional progress as well as challenges. In addition to the surface-level improvements, there are 106-year-old utility pipes under the street that need to be replaced. However, certain businesses appear to be more concerned about the through-traffic count than the benefits to safety, infrastructure and storefronts.

As a resident and patron of those businesses, you can inform them why it is important to have a walkable environment, and why cars that obey the speed limit can be a boon to business. Residents who are in favor of N Monroe revitalization can counter vocal naysayers by contacting the City Council as well as writing letters to the editor and to the mayor in support of the road diet (more info on that is here).

Councilwoman Mumm also noted that complaints have arisen over 60-foot cell towers being placed in two back yards, and a six-month moratorium was placed on installing them. Regulations are being proposed that could limit those towers to commercial zones.

Laura Schlangen reported on the Corbin Senior Activity Center. Their Madhatter’s Tea Party is on Friday, May 22 at 1:30pm. The annual Golf Scramble will be held on Friday, June 5. The Munch and Mingle Auction is on Saturday, September 19.

Karl Boldt reported on the recent Spring Cleanup. This year there were over 60 volunteers, 140 participating residents, 21.2 tons of refuse and 1.92 tons of recyclable material. The event is already scheduled for next year: Saturday, May 21, 2016. Since we only used $3,957.50 of the allotted $6,500 budget, additional dump passes will be given to residents throughout the year.

Jay Cousins reported on the Community Assembly. As part of its renewal, the CA will try to be an equal partner to neighborhoods and the local government, balancing the two groups.

The CA is also currently working on ordinances regarding outdoor storage and vehicles. One issue was whether to allow 1 to 4 cars per residence in addition to the four (4) cars that each residence is allowed to have legally. The final decision was to allow two (2) additional cars that are not visible from the street. There is already an ordinance against parking on the front lawn, so Code Enforcement should be contacted at (509) 625-6083 for relevant violations.

After final announcements about upcoming neighborhood events, the meeting adjourned just after 7:30pm.