Metro storm-water ponds are chemical soups

By TOM MEERSMAN, Star Tribune
Last update: April 27, 2010 – 12:30 PM

White Bear Lake’s proposed ban on some driveway sealants is a first step in keeping contaminants out of storm-water ponds.  The local neighborhood pond fringed with spring green looks attractive, but its muddy bottom is loaded with contaminants.

Friday, April 30, 3-6p.m. AND

Saturday, May 1, 10am-1pm (or until they run out of trees)

in the front of the store, 516 Water St S.

Cost: FREE

To encourage the planting of native hardwood trees in our community, the Northfield Tree Advisory Group of the Environmental Quality Commission (in collaboration with the Rice County Forestry Board, the DNR and Just Food) will distribute 1000 native tree saplings to Northfield residents who agree to plant and care for the trees on private properties in Northfield. The tree saplings will be distributed on a first come first serve basis at Just Food Co-op (516 Water Street South) on Saturday, May 1, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Just Food.  Experienced tree handlers will be on hand with advice on tree selection, planting and ongoing care. The tree saplings are bare root stock, native tree species cultivated from Minnesota seeds by the MN Department of Natural Resources for Spring planting, and measure approximately 8- 12”. Choose from Red, White or Burr Oak, Sugar Maple, and Norway or White Pine saplings (limit four per household).

Similar trees will also be given away by another group at Just Food Co-op on Friday, April 30 from 3-6 p.m.

I also added this as a page on the right side bar so it would be a constant on the blog site…  but thought it would be a nice thing to point out.  Maybe others have old documents that would be appropriate to add to the documents.  Email or call me if you have something that you would like to share, I can scan is for you.

Last year we became concerned that even when we were gone the paper was delivered.  We saw this as an indication that there was no one home.  As we looked around we saw that there were many places that the paper just piled up at the front door, in the bushes and in the driveway, even when people were home.  This was  especially evident in the winter when the garage is so frequently used to enter the home.  Griff contacted the Northfield news and discovered that we could indeed cancel the Shopper.  Here is a link to the original post on Locally Grown.  Visit this link to read the story.  So far it has been successful most of the time.  The delivery person needs a reminder every now and then.

They organized around some specific city issues affecting their neighborhood and have continued, seeing the benefits of communication and collaboration.

I have added a link in the right hand column, hoping that there will continue to be other neighborhoods we can add to this list.

Just as a side note….  we really need to change the photo that we are using at the top of our site…  does anyone have a great early spring picture of the neighborhood?

CALL TO ORDER
Approval of minutes from the March 10th, 2009 meeting

TREASURER’S REPORT

OLD BUSINESS
  1. Bookkeeper search – Anne and Steve
  2. Report on the Audit Committee – Anne
  3. Amendment to by-laws to allow non-board members as officers – Sherry
  4. Report from Nominating Committee – Earl
  5. Insurance quote – Robbie
  6. Annual Meeting – Sherry
NEW BUSINESS

Click to open a PDF of these documents:

First Amendment to the VPTA Bylaws

Proposed letter to accompany Bylaw change

Link to Compost Information (click to enlarge)

Sherry Freking suggested that I put up information on the city’s composting site.  I added a link to the city’s website in the Link area on the right side bar but I thought it might be helpful to show you where you need to go on that page to get the information needed.  The city’s site is a little confusing and hard to navigate.  The image on the left is just a picture of the webpage with an arrow showing what to click on to get the full page of information. 

Northfield Composting site opens again for the season on April 15th. Their hours are:
Monday thru Friday – 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Saturdays – 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

http://en.gravatar.com/

If you have tried and it just doesn’t work, contact me using the “Contact Page” on the right side bar or email me at robbie@iglide.net.  If I can’t help you, I will grab Griff to bail us both out.