Easter Egg Hunt Tomorrow At 10am - MY Dream Park!

Ok, I know it's a little (a lot) late, but I just couldn't pass up mentioning the annual Monona Easter Egg Hunt at the Dream Park tomorrow morning. It has been one of my most favorite things about Monona and is also a convenient excuse to post one of my favorite photos.

From the city website http://www.mymonona.com/:

The Monona Parks & Recreation Department and Monona Grove Optimist Club are proud to announce the 13th Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 23rd in Winnequah Park near the M.Y. Dream Park playground. (If the weather makes it impossible to be outside, the event will be held inside at the Monona Community Center) The hunt begins at 10:00 a.m. SHARP! Don’t be late or you’ll miss all the fun. There will be candy, prizes, lots of fun, and possibly a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny. The hunting grounds will be divided into separate areas for ages 1-3 years, 4-6 years, and 7-9 years. Please come and join us for this free community event. If you have questions please call the Monona Parks and Recreation Department at 222-4167.

Monona Grove Board Of Education Meets Tonight.

The Board of Education will meet tonight at 7 pm in the District Office. The full agenda can be found here.
Some items of note:

The discussion and possible approval of renewal or nonrenewal of contract with Chartwells School Dining Services for provision of food service for 2011-2012. We have received numerous emails from our food service workers supporting the nonrenewal of Chartwells contract with the district. Business Services Director Jerrod Rossing did a suberb job of soliciting student feedback on the changes to our district's lunch program (specifically at the highschool and GDS) and Chartwell's offerings were universally panned. I haven't been a fan of the program from the start; their colloboration with local farmers seems to be limited to Sysco Foods, lunches looked unappetizing and tiny, and the "all-the-fruit-and-vegetables-you-care-to-eat" wasn't all that they had touted. Once I found out that Chartwells considered canned fruit to be a fresh fruit option, my camel's back broke. I have to say that Chartwells did a nice job of trying to address the district's concerns,  but their program is not saving the district money and not making our kids or our food service staff happy. Time to go.

Also under new business is the discussion and possible approval of a children's garden at Winnequah Elementary. Several parents, Erin Staver, Chris Marsh, Carrie Howes and Maggie Baum,  have done an absolutely stellar job of putting together a comprehensive proposal for this. Anyone who knows me or reads my blog knows that I LOVE gardening, community gardens, edible landscapes etc. etc. I'm all in and I love this proposal. I hope that we can develop a user agreement and nail down other details soon.

Old business consists of ongoing discussion and possible approval of proposed budget reductions.

In the consent agenda, I would like to thank the Monona Elementary PTO for their donation of $920.37 to Winnequah School and the GDS PTO for their donation of $1,970.00 for the development of the GDS Prairie for a sign and guest speaker.

I would also like to thank Board member Jill List for her service on the MG School Board. Tonight will be her last meeting and I wish her well! Thanks Jill!

Monona Park And Recreation Board Meets Tonight.

The Park and Rec Board will meet this evening at 6 pm in the Monona Community Center.

New business consists of:

A. 2013 Parks, Community Center, Pool Capital Plan Ranking

B. Recommendation/Award of contract for Maywood Park Pedestrian Path project

C. Review/Discussion of Public Input meeting for Parks & Open Space Plan

D. Capital Transfer Request/Recommendation of $136,000 for Firemen’s Park Shelter bathroom construction project

Monday evening was the last of two scheduled open houses for community members to check out Director Jake Anderson's proposed Parks and Open Space Plan. He did a nice job of setting up various displays of proposed changes, particularly in Winnequah Park, and solicited community input through the tried-and-true Post-It note approach. I stopped in last night at the Community Center to check things out and found a lot of good comments had been left. Stop in tonight at our meeting to offer any additional comments you may have!

The Park and Open Space Plan can be found here.