NEWS FOR THE MACALESTER-GROVELAND NEIGHBORHOOD In this edition: Alley Garden Awards Help Needed; UST Appeal; Great Mac-Grove Garage Sale Registration; Have a Computer to Donate?; National Night Out August 3rd; Have Your Stump Removed
----------------------------------------------- ALLEY GARDEN AWARDS: HELP NEEDED THIS WEEK! The Macalester-Groveland Community Council is in need of volunteers for the following events. Most only take a small amount of time. Please look over the opportunities and call us if you are interested. 1) Plant flags for the Alley Garden Awards between July 21-23: Sign up for a grid and deliver much-anticipated flags for the Alley Garden Awards. One grid usually take between one and two hours to plant and you can ride a bike or drive your car through the grid to make it go faster. The hours are flexible and you can plant when you want, as long as they are all planted by dusk on Friday, July 23rd. To volunteer for the Alley Garden Awards, please contact Megan Simmons, Crime Prevention Coordinator, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2) Prize Patrol volunteer on National Night Out, Tuesday, August 3rd: Deliver goodies and crime prevention information to 2-4 parties on National Night Out. The prize patrol is one way we recognize the effort of block clubs and the volunteers have a fun time visiting parties (and if you're lucky - you get fed!). As a prize patrol volunteer, you would be paired with one other volunteer and assigned to 2-4 parties in a relatively close area in the neighborhood. Most parties occur between 5 - 9 pm and we can work around your schedule. If you are interested, please contact Megan Simmons, Crime Prevention Coordinator, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and let her know what times that night you are available. 3) Groveland Community Night Out, Tuesday, August 17th: Help in various ways by setting up, helping with kid's activities, or clean up. Most volunteer slots are only 1-1.5 hours long. To volunteer for this fun community event, contact Megan Simmons, Crime Prevention Coordinator, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 4) Donate a PA system for band at Groveland Community Night Out: We have lined up a band to volunteer their time to entertain us with their musical stylings, however, we are looking for a PA system so that we can hear them! If you have such a system and would be willing to donate its use for two hours on Tuesday, August 17th, contact Megan Simmons, Crime Prevention Coordinator, at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------- BE HEARD ON ST THOMAS EXPANSION; SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS BEFORE JULY 28TH The afternoon of July 28th, the St. Paul City Council will hear the Macalester-Groveland Community Council's appeal of the St. Thomas expansion decision. While the Community Council supports the expansion of the University under certain conditions, we believe the Planning Commission did not place sufficient controls in its conditions for the expansion of the University. Without the City enacting stronger conditions as part of its expansion approval, the Community Council does not support the expansion. You still have a chance to impact the outcome of the process. Interested community members may contact your City Council member and/or the Mayor on the matter, should you choose. The appropriate contact information for your Councilmember and the Mayor can be found by calling the City at 651-266-8989. The City Council and Mayor ultimately have the power decide what kind of expansion the City will allow. You may wish to cite the Community Council's Criteria for expansion in your comments. The Community Criteria for expansion has been developed over the last five years through the input of hundreds of community members like you. The Community Criteria is the basis for the Community Council's appeal of the expansion decision to the City Council. In several areas, the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for expansion passed by the Planning Commission does not fully reflect the community's work on the Criteria. Specifically, the Community Council requests: - Finn Street to clearly remain open and public - a strict 8,000 student enrollment cap - a 20 year moratorium on acquisition of nearby property by the University - retention of all 11 houses on the western block of expansion along Summit Avenue - requests to limit all parking ramps to 250 spaces per ramp - requests all construction be set back at least 60 feet from Summit Avenue, and - requests new construction along Grand house a maximum of 100 units for at most 200 students. The City Council will hear the matter at its July 28th meeting. Stay updated, and get more information on the appeal process through the Mac-Groveland website at www.macgrove.org. Don't hesitate to call Bob Spaulding, Community Organizer/Executive Director at 651-695-4000 if you have any questions about the expansion or appeal process. ----------------------------------------------- GREAT MACALESTER-GROVELAND GARAGE SALE On Saturday, August 28th, from 9am to 3pm, neighborhood residents wanting to hold a garage sale can team up and be part of the Great Macalester-Groveland Garage Sale. For $13, the Community Council helps you coordinate advertising and promotion for your garage sale that day. Ads will be placed in the Villager, Pioneer Press and StarTribune advertising your own garage sale location. We will also advertise the locations online and at several neighborhood locations. For more information, or to download a registration form, visit http://www.macgrove.org/garage%20sale.htm, email Bob Spaulding at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call him at 651-695-4000. -------------------------------------------------- KIDSPARK IN SEARCH OF A COMPUTER Are you in search of a tax break? KidsPark Drop-in childcare is in search someone willing to donate a mid-level used computer. We are looking for a specific kind of computer: a PC running at 300 Mhz or faster, with at minimum 64MB of RAM and at least a 3 GB hard drive. We already have licesenses for software meeting these exact specifications. If you have a computer meets these qualifications that you wish to donate, please call us at 651-695-4000 to donate your computer. (If it does not meet those requirements, but you wish to get rid of your computer anyway, you may contact Rachel Harris, Recycling Coordinator at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 651-695-4000 for tips on disposal). Your computer donation is 100% tax-deductible (as allowed by law). KidsPark is a wholly-owned program of the Macalester-Groveland Community Council, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. --------------------------------------------------- REGISTER YOUR NATIONAL NIGHT OUT BLOCK PARTY There is still time to register your National Night Out Block Party. National Night Out this year is Tuesday, August 3rd. Interested leaders in the neighborhood whose block is not yet registered may call Megan Simmons, Crime Prevention Coordinator, at 651-695-4000 to register their National Night Out Celebration. Registrants will be visited by the Prize Patrol, who will share crime prevention tips and prizes with children, can be visited by a Police representative, and will be eligible for a prize drawing that includes ice cream from Widmer's Market. The deadline for registering your party is July 28th. The deadline for requesting block closures has already passed. ----------------------------------------------- HAVE YOUR BOULEVARD STUMP REMOVED Do you live in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood and need a stump removed from your boulevard? Thanks to a grant from the City of Saint Paul, Macalester-Groveland residents can take advantage of a half-price boulevard stump removal program. Homeowners who have a tree stump on the boulevard � the portion of the property that lies between the street and the sidewalk � are responsible for removal of the stump if they want to get rid of it. This program offers residents the opportunity to share the cost of the stump removal with the City. For the reduced rate of $35 per tree stump, the Macalester-Groveland Community Council will coordinate the grinding of boulevard stumps. They will be ground down two inches below ground level and the chips will be left at the site. If you're interested in having a boulevard stump removed, send a check for $35, payable to MGCC, to Macalester-Groveland Community Council, ATTN: Stump Removal, 320 South Griggs Street, Saint Paul, MN 55105. Please include a note indicating the contact person, their daytime phone number, and the address of the stump to be removed. Once we receive payment, the stump will be removed as soon as a group of ten has been collected and forwarded to the contractor. For more information, please contact Bob Spaulding, Community Organizer/Executive Director, at 651-695-4000. ----------------------------------------------- UPCOMING MEETINGS Environment Committee - Thursday, July 22 at 7pm Transportation Committee - Monday, July 26th at 7pm National Night Out - Tuesday, August 3rd; various times and locations by block Groveland Night Out - Tuesday, August 17th at 7-10pm at Groveland Park, 1963 St. Clair Ave. All meetings are held at the Edgcumbe Recreation Center, 320 S. Griggs St. unless otherwise noted. ----------------------------------------------- This informational e-mail was sent by the Macalester-Groveland Community Council, located in the Edgcumbe Recreation Center at 320 South Griggs Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Macalester-Groveland Community Council serves Citizen Participation Planning District 14 in Saint Paul, the area bordered by Summit Avenue, the Mississippi River, Randolph Avenue and Ayd Mill Road/I-35E. Call our office (651-695-4000) with any questions or concerns you may have! Please let us know if you'd rather not receive these updates and we'll be happy to take you off your list. Bob Spaulding, Community Organizer/Executive Director Rachel Harris, Coordinator of Recycling and Home Improvement Programs Megan Simmons, Coordinator of Crime Prevention, Youth Initiative and Chore Service Programs Erin Geary, KidsPark Lead Teacher Maren Skyberg, KidsPark Assistant Teacher Chris Oinonen Ehren, KidsPark Infant Teacher _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
