Mar 14th

Greetings, Neighbors!

We had our second meeting this past Monday, March 9th and had approximately 30 residents present. We discussed the concerns submitted by neighbors at the last meeting and the progress made on them since. They are as follows:

1) Crime Prevention
No new Neighborhood Watch Groups (NWGs) have been started. We received crime statistics from the RPD for 2008 and 2007, and met with a representative from the Parkview Neighborhood Association (PNA) to learn how they analyze their stats. The PNA is having a meeting on Wed, 3/18 at 7 pm at Juniper School and will focus on their crime stats if anyone is interested in learning how they use their data and how their organization operates.

2) Street lighting
If additional lighting is needed and all neighbors are in agreement, write a letter expressing the need and location, have all neighbors sign, and call Ron Hofer, REU, 339-7322 to find out where to deliver or send the letter.

3) Speeding/traffic calming
We have several areas where stop signs, crosswalks, and/or speed humps might be beneficial. The City is extremely cautious about these issues. This is a long-term issue that we will require significant organization and planning before a successful request can be made.

4) Code Enforcement - RVs, boats, trailers, sidewalk obstructions
5) Alley Cleanup, storm drain cleanup days
6) Block party, building the relationship between renters and owners

Our new business consisted of listing our neighborhood's strengths and assets. The entries were: Seniors, trees, soil, location, river, neighbors, family homes, character, walkability, Safeway & local businesses, schools, fireworks, library, Turtle Bay, community activities.

Speaking of our local businesses, I took the initiative to present letters to several local businesses describing our neighborhood group and inviting them to attend, distribute promotional meetings, or offer a door prize. I let them know we would continue to support our local businesses as much as possible.

Next we discussed our concerns and issues to improve. These included: land use issues (the vacant West Venture building adjacent to the Shasta Regional Medical Center which has been considered for the RPD headquarters, the building addition onto the Shasta Community Health Center), alley cleanup, code enforcement issues, crime prevention, traffic issues (stop signs, crosswalks, speedhumps). We assigned small teams to each area so others can communicate and decide how to proceed and report back to our group.

The teams are: Land Use, Cleanup, Crime Prevention, Traffic, and Code Enforcement. If you are interested in being more involved in one of these areas, please contact me (moniquegaido@gmail.com, 229-9348) and I will help connect you.

We also discussed the importance of having active liaisons between our GTS and the City Council to remain informed. We have some volunteers and I am excited to report that positive feedback was received from our Land Use group and our Cleanup group less than 24 hours after our meeting! I should note here that the City plans to request the Council's permission on April 7th to apply for Safe Routes to Schools funding for sidewalks along the west side of Sequoia St from Yuba St to Lee St. If successful, which the City feels is about a 30% possibility, it would happen in 2010 or 2011.

In addition to our lists, goals, and team development, we had a guest from Cypress School, Molly Stimple, tell us about a garden project at the school. The Cypress School Health Committee is looking for neighborhood volunteers to help plan, develop, and maintain this garden. You can call Cypress School at 225-0040 if you are interested.

Our third meeting will be on Monday, May 18th, at 7 pm, Cypress School Library. Note we will meet in the Library for better acoustics. We hope to see you all then! Thank you, Neighbors, for building the sense of community for the Garden Tract.

Sincerely,

Monique Gaido
Chairperson
moniquegaido@gmail.com

Mar 8th

Hello Neighbors!

'Twas the night before the meeting, and I am too excited to wait. Some great things are happening. We are connecting people and learning about new projects in our neighborhood. We'll discuss them in more detail tomorrow night, but I wanted to outline them here.

1) The City of Redding wants to apply for funding to put in additional sidewalks along the west side of Sequoia St from Yuba St to Lee St. The City will request permission to go ahead with the application at the Council meeting on 3/17. The City would also like a letter from our neighborhood organization supporting the effort.

2) Cypress School wants to start a garden to teach students about growing vegetables and fruit and about nutrition. Teacher Molly Stimple will attend our meeting to ask if there are master gardeners or just regular old gardeners in the neighborhood that would like to help plan the garden.

3) The Shasta Community Health Center on Placer and Continental is interested in expanding with a 10,165 square foot addition at 1035 Placer. This will be discussed at a Redding Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, March 10th, at the City Council Chamber at 4 pm.

We look forward to other neighborhood news and ideas for our discussion tomorrow night. Hope you can all make it. If not, please check this site for our minutes.

Thanks!
Monique