Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
A Couple Of Meetings This Week...
The Monona Park and Recreation Board is scheduled to meet this Tuesday evening at 6-ish at the Monona Community Center.
I'm not sure if our meeting has been postponed as we haven't received an agenda yet, but as our June meeting was cancelled, I'm sure we will convene this month at some point.
Speaking of our Monona parks, anyone noticed the huge pile of concrete, rocks and other construction debris that has overtaken Woodland Park? At our last meeting in May, our Park and Recreation Board approved using the park as a holding ground of sorts for road construction detritus, and while I'm certainly g
lad to take some of the onus off of Monona Drive business owners of having a huge pile of rocks in front of their businesses, I have to wonder what the effect of dumping all this junk off in the park will have on soil compaction, flora and fauna. The original thought was that the construction company would re-prairie this area for the city after cleaning up the construction rubble. They had offered to spread the seeds that the city has already purchased for that purpose in exchange for using the park. Oh well, I've heard that Park and Rec. Director Jake Anderson has been lobbying our City Alders to turn that stretch of the Woodland Park into a parking lot anyway. Maybe they'll plan to add some trees into the lot landscaping to get into the spirit of things. Guess we'll wait and see.
lad to take some of the onus off of Monona Drive business owners of having a huge pile of rocks in front of their businesses, I have to wonder what the effect of dumping all this junk off in the park will have on soil compaction, flora and fauna. The original thought was that the construction company would re-prairie this area for the city after cleaning up the construction rubble. They had offered to spread the seeds that the city has already purchased for that purpose in exchange for using the park. Oh well, I've heard that Park and Rec. Director Jake Anderson has been lobbying our City Alders to turn that stretch of the Woodland Park into a parking lot anyway. Maybe they'll plan to add some trees into the lot landscaping to get into the spirit of things. Guess we'll wait and see.*note: while taking these photos at Woodland Park, I actually fell down a hill of rubble, which was simultaneously horrifying and extremely funny. I'll bet the construction guys weren't expecting a hugely pregnant female landslide on Monona Drive today. Maybe I'll go into labor now; guess we'll wait and see.
In Cottage Grove Kids Park news: I received this email from Jeff Simpson:
http://www.refresheverything.com/cgkidspark
Pepsi is running a promotion and they are giving money to the ten ideas that get the most votes. The Cottage Grove Kids park is one of the ideas and is currently in 131st place. It only takes a minute to vote, especially once you're signed up, and you can vote every day through the end of July. If we finish in the top 10 we would get $25,000 for the park!
The Monona Grove Board of Education will meet this Wednesday evening in the District Office at 7pm.
Unfinished business includes the possible approvals of the new MG21 charter school charter amendments, our district's participation in an impact concussion study, the Chartwells Food Management contract and non-represented staff compensation. New business will include the discussion and possible approval of the restructuring of both our district's Continuous Improvement and Assessment Coordinator and Diversity Coordinator positions.
I also wanted to acknowledge the gift donations to our schools and students, something I would like to start doing consistently. The Board approves our gift donations monthly as a formality in our consent agenda and sometimes the amazing generosity of our school community isn't emphasized enough.
$171.00 from Skala Photography to Maywood for Activity Scholarship Fund
$324.00 from Skala Photography to Taylor Prairie for building needs
$1,000.00 from Kohls for furniture for the pod areas of grades 7-8 at GDS (grants written by GDS PTO)
$802.97 from the Monona PTO to Maywood School for grades EC-2 and Related Arts
$938.42 from the Monona PTO to Winnequah School for Related Arts, 4th- 6th grades
$200.00 from Susan and Chris Lynch to Winnequah School (Chris Charlson) to purchase books.
Thank You!
In other news, the puppy is still at the breeders and the baby is still on the way. Ah, the waiting...
Monday, July 5, 2010
Feeling A Little Sheepish...
about my lack of posting, but I guess having a husband with half a Titanium heart, a crazy neighbor who is intent on turning our side yard into a self-styled Gaza Strip, the looming birth of my third child, several fireworks displays and a new puppy can give me some sort of pass. Especially since I was recently invited to join http://www.channel3000.com/ 's new community page featuring news and commentary from Monona / Cottage Grove area as a blog-correspondent (corresblogger? blogespondent? someone with too much time on my hands?)
As some of you may know, my husband had open heart surgery almost three weeks ago and h
ad his aortic valve and stem replaced with Titanium steel parts. Pretty cool, especially as one can actually hear the valve opening and closing. We want to thank all the countless friends and neighbors who stopped by and called after surgery. It really does bring tears to my eyes to think of how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful, giving community where folks who I only recognize from their daily walks stop by to give words of encouragement, best wishes, offers to walk our dog, watch the boys and mow the lawn and various ribald jokes about all sorts of demented things. And to the wonderful brigade of ladies organized by Chris Zenger who dropped us off three and four course dinners every single night, I can barely even express how much you all touched my heart! Sadly, we've all admitted that we have never eaten so well. I guess I had better step up my game in the kitchen or else tragically lose a limb. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are truly blessed!
ad his aortic valve and stem replaced with Titanium steel parts. Pretty cool, especially as one can actually hear the valve opening and closing. We want to thank all the countless friends and neighbors who stopped by and called after surgery. It really does bring tears to my eyes to think of how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful, giving community where folks who I only recognize from their daily walks stop by to give words of encouragement, best wishes, offers to walk our dog, watch the boys and mow the lawn and various ribald jokes about all sorts of demented things. And to the wonderful brigade of ladies organized by Chris Zenger who dropped us off three and four course dinners every single night, I can barely even express how much you all touched my heart! Sadly, we've all admitted that we have never eaten so well. I guess I had better step up my game in the kitchen or else tragically lose a limb. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are truly blessed!Monona Family Attraction Committee Meeting This Thursday, July 8th, Monona City Hall, 6:30pm
I'm not sure of the agenda this week, although I know we will continue to discuss the organization of our third annual Monona Family Fall Festival scheduled to take place this September 26th at Winnequah Park. If anyone is interested in vending, performing or volunteering, please drop me a comment or email jessicaace@hotmail.com. In other FARC news, I am very proud to see the banners that our committee picked out hanging on the Broadway corridor. They look wonderful and add a cohesive neighborish feel to the street. Thoughts?
There was a great article about my friend and neighbor, Jens Carstensen, in this Sunday's WSJ. He has a summer show at the Jura Silverman Gallery, 143 S. Washington St., Spring Green until September 15th. Full disclosure: I've never seen him prancing around in the buff, but he did give me his car.
Avery and the new puppy!
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