votewojcik.org

Good Morning,

I have a couple of short items today I thought you’d like to be aware of.

• Stonehedge / Rocky Creek Signal Light:

You’re probably aware of the work that has been going on over the past few weeks to install a new traffic signal at the intersection of Rocky Creek / Stonehedge / Circle Drive East.  That work is moving to the final stages to be completed before school starts.

Winkels Electric will be installing traffic signal poles and mast arms at the intersection on Tuesday, August 21st , 2012.  Most of the work, on East Circle Drive NE, is expected to take place in the early morning hours, with work beginning around 5:00 AM, with all roadway closures on East Circle Drive being complete before 6:30 AM.  During that time, short term roadway closures maybe encountered, while the signal mast arms are bolted to the traffic poles. Roadway closures are anticipated to last no more than 15 minutes for any direction. Various lane closures may occur throughout the day as other work is being complete.

• Forum: Working with Your City

Maybe your neighborhood has had an opportunity to work with the city as part of a larger development project.  Or perhaps you’ve read about projects in other parts of the city.  Either way, it can be an involved, confusing process if you’ve never gone through it before.

RNeighbors is hosting a community forum entitled ‘Working with Your City’ to be held on Wednesday, September 26th from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.  It will be held in the Rochester Public Library auditorium and is free.  A panel, consisting of members from planning, building safety, city attorneys office, city council and other areas, will first give a brief overview of their respective area as it relates to the process.  Then, representatives from five neighborhoods will give an overview of a project that has happened or is happening.  Included will be Badger Hills, Historic SW, Indian Heights, Kutzky Park North and Slatterly Park Neighbors.  In each case we will have some dialogue about the process – what worked and what could have been improved.  A nice opportunity to learn more about how these sorts of activities are handled in the city of Rochester.

A heart felt thanks to the 500+ volunteers that planted 1400+ trees on 5/5/12.  Your selfless determination has made a change to our built environment that will be apparent for the next 100 years.

People have different skill sets, but everybody found a way to help.  Many of you dug and planted trees, but others that were not able to do that found other ways of participating.  What an amazing event and an amazing group of people.

Great work everybody.  Read the rest of this entry »

First an update, while the weather in May and June was not particularly nice for us humans, it was great for newly planted trees.  As such I checked a few streets up in the NW and it appears that better than 95% of the trees are doing well.  This is good news after much poorer numbers last year in the Country Club Manor area, in part due to vandals.

I was sent an analysis by 3 students (Peggy Buehler, Neomi Runyon, Holly Berg) who looked at how much money we saved by doing a community planting.  In short, this is a great way to plant trees and improve neighborhoods. I fully expect they got an “A.”

Community Tree Planting Event reflection

Community Tree Planting

… and neighborhood tycoon Rene Lafflam on their selection as a Minnesota Community Pride Showcase winner.

Here is a link to this and other winners.  We all appreciate the ongoing work of RNeighbors and their dedicated volunteers.

Here is some info on what RNeignbors has been up to. Read the rest of this entry »

The weather was great, the volunteers were great, the food was great, and now the pain in my back is also great.  We had a tremendous time and I would like to personally thank all those involved.  Rene and Jacob showed outstanding leadership.  There were so many people involved, I don’t dare start to name them.  Rather that going on, I will just plagiarize what Citizen and Friend Bob Nowicki said. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some good environmental events upcoming. Read the rest of this entry »

How about 1000?  Be a part of a very special RNeighborwoods tree planting on May 7.  We will make a positive changed to some Rochester Neighborhoods for the next 100 years! Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a great video and some upcoming events. 1,000 trees in 1 day, you betcha….

RAW Winter Workshop, Thursday, February 17
RNeighborWoods Friedell butterfly garden planting, TBD
RNeighborWoods Citizen Forester Training, Saturday, April 9
Think Green Fair (Earth Day), Saturday, April 16
RNeighborWoods Neighborhood Grant planting, April 9 at 2:30 pm
RNeighborWoods 1,000 tree planting, Saturday, May 7
RPU’s Arbor Day, Friday, April 29

Here is a link to the postbulletin.com article on CAPS and Kutzky Park’s own Susan Todzy.

“I think what we’re really trying to capture is neighbor-to-neighbor (communication),” said Susan Todzy, who heads the 16-member Citizens Advisors for Public Safety (CAPS) group.

Good job community organizers and activists!