Recently posted:

Land Use Committee Meeting Minutes
May 2, 2007

Link

Thanks for donations this month from:

Tankenoff Families Foundation

Marantha Christian fellowship

J Kaufenberg and D Brousseau

I have some stuff called Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginicum) growing in my backyard. It’s in the garden beds and in the grass.

Does anyone know how to get rid of it?

It is a perennial of upland woods and shady floodplains and spreads by rootstalks according to my Northland Wild Flowers book. Would using one of those sticks meant to kill dandelions work?

Sunday
June 3, 2007
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Annual Gardeners’ Potluck & Plant Swap

521 7th St SE
(home of Robin & Eric Nelson)

For the potluck:

Avenues bring a dessert or salad;
Streets bring a main dish.

For the Plant Swap:

Bring any extra plants or seeds to give away or trade. People looking for
plants — with none to trade - are welcome too — we always have extras!

Bring your gardening questions and advice.

Sponsored by MHNA Gardening Committee.

Questions? 623-7633 MHNA office

There are FREE woodchips for gardeners at Marcy Open School.

Go around the art room (round room facing park) and help yourselves to mulch.

After school hours, it may be quickest to use the parking lot off 4th St.

With the concerns in Marcy Holmes Neighborhood, I wanted to bring some good
news.

During the last week, the 2nd Precinct arrested 8 individuals for
aggravated robbery and the University of Minnesota made three arrests. As
these cases move through the court system, I may be sending you information
about community impact statements that you can make regarding these
individuals and their crimes.

The property at 813 5th St SE has now been boarded.

There was an arrest today of an individual who may have committed some of
the burglaries in the neighborhood. He was arrested on warrants for past
crimes, not for burglary. This does not mean that individuals should stop
using safety practices such as locking their homes and garages.

- Carol Oosterhuis, Second Precinct 673-2874

RECENT BURGLARIES AND ROBBERIES

University of Minnesota Police Chief Greg Hestness has been tracking the robbery trends in SE Minneapolis and informing his officers. Last week was a bad week with 5 cases SE, including one on campus, in which UMPD made an arrest. Since March 1st Southeast Minneapolis has had:

14 total person and business robberies (one on campus)
9 involved or implied a gun
9 had students as victims.

Council Member Diane Hofstede reports that the Public Safety & Regulatory Services Committee this week approved additional funding for police for this summer. She expects that the City Council will approve the additional $250,000 for neighborhoods. Each precinct and each neighborhood will receive funding.

Six Dinkytown businesses will get new flowers for permanent containers this spring, thanks to our NRP Boulevard Garden Program.

They are:

House of Hanson, Urban Envy, Burrito Loco, Subway, Duffy’s Pizza and Sara Cura/Avalon Cards.

New boulevard trees have been planted in the neighborhood.

If you are the property owner or even the neighbor – please water the trees over the summer. The first two years are critical.

Thank you.

The Red Stag restaurant will be located at 509 1st Avenue NE and will be the first LEED Certified restaurant
in Minnesota.

The Red Stag will be a northwoods style supper club with a contemporized menu. It is the fifth restaurant conceived by the Bartmann family. Kim and Kari Bartmann currently operate Bryant Lake Bowl and Barbette in Minneapolis. The restaurants have been focusing on local and organic product for some time now, and on generally ‘greening’ the businesses. They believe the LEED process will provide an excellent framework in which to push the envelope further.

What is LEED?
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle.

The Red Stag will host the First Annual Block Party on Saturday, June 9 from 5-10:30 pm.

The free outdoor block party will feature a special performance by LOW, Prudence Johnson, Chooglin, Black Blondie, MC/VL and the Lit 6 Project. This will be a Zero-Waste event and will feature a flea market, and food and beverages from local and organic farmers. We also produce the Uptown Pride Block Party, Bastille Day and the Bryant Lake Bowl Block Party in Uptown. We take pride in our events, as they bring a large amount of new people into the neighborhood and to the businesses, and take extreme measures to produce a safe, clean and fun environment for everyone.

Although the funds have been allocated to reopen the three branches, we do not have a clear timeline of when that will happen. We should have more clarity later this summer but it could be 6 months, it could be 18 months. We have accepted other gifts in the last year for the closed branches and will hold them until those books can go on the shelves.

As long as the donors understand that we are as yet unsure of the opening date, they can be sure that The Friends will dedicate their funds accordingly and hold them until the doors are open. In a way it makes a lot of sense to keep fundraising during the closure so the collections won’t be stale & outdated when the reopening does happen.

The Friends’ fiscal year ends 6/30/07 and we are closing in (just under $100,000) on our goal of $1 million for books to MPL. Your gift and others would help us reach this goal. We will continue to accept gifts for collections in the future as long as necessary. Thank you and let me know if you have any other questions.

Dawn M. Flinsch, Associate Director of Development
The Friends of Minneapolis Public Library
U of M to hold community open forum on Music Education Building

Facts:

• From April 26-30, there were 14 burglaries and attempted burglaries of dwellings in the Marcy Holmes neighborhood.
• Half of these were garage burglaries; the rest were burglaries of apartments and houses. The suspects entered by cutting screens in windows, through unlocked doors, prying doors and windows, and breaking windows.
• Losses included money, jewelry, CDs and DVDs, bikes, laptops, and other electronics.

The locations of the crimes were:

• 4xx 6th Ave. SE
• 4xx 7th Ave. SE
• 4xx University Ave. SE
• 6xx 5th St. SE
• 7xx 5th Ave. SE
• 7xx 6th Ave. SE
• 7xx 7th St. SE
• 7xx 8th St. SE
• 6xx 11th Ave. SE
• 7xx 13th Ave. SE
• 7xx University Ave. SE
• 8xx 5th Ave. SE (three on this block)

What you can do:

… Lock your garage, home, or apartment doors and windows at all times, even if you are in the home or the yard.

… Install high-security strike plates, secured with 3″ screws on exterior doors. Also install deadbolt locks on all exterior doors. These locks should have a 1″ bolt throw, case-hardened cylinder guard, and tie screws on the inside.

… Secure overhead doors with padlocks in tracks, hasps and padlocks, or electric openers.

… Secure windows permanently, or use pins, keyed locks, or grillwork.

… Cover your garage windows so no one can see inside easily. Consider placing bars on your garage windows.

… Leave both an outdoor and indoor light on if you go out for the evening. Consider using light timers, so the lights go off and on when you are away from home. Also, leave a radio or TV on when gone.

… Never open your door until you know who is there.

… Introduce yourself to your neighbors. Start a block club. There will be a Block Club Training on Thursday, May 17 at Webster School, 425 5th St. NE. Please call Carol Oosterhuis (612-673-2874) to RSVP if you plan to attend.

… Call 911 when you see illegal or suspicious activity such as a stranger trying to open your neighbor¹s door.

… Consider having a home security premise survey. Call Crime Prevention Specialist Carol Oosterhuis at (612) 673-2874 to schedule.

Contact the office if you have what’s needed or want what’s offered:LOOKING FOR

Ardes J - looking for peonies
Robin N - looking for large shade plants
Tessa B - looking for red or pink lillies, and annuals in pink, purple or white

Bump-out gardens - looking for stones or bricks to border two gardens

Extra tools (trowel, shovel, watering can) for one gardener

OFFERING

Arvonne F - sedum, creeping phlox, regular phlox, large ferns
Sonny S - peonies - must be dug in August/Sept.
Sonny S - wild ginger, celadine, poppies, hostas

To add to or respond to our Gardeners Wish List, email: mhna@pro-ns.net

MHNA Bump-Out gardens along historic 5th St SE are adopted by residents.

The gardens span from 4th Ave SE - 8th Ave SE. They are planted with some perennial and native plants, and we will have some annuals in May to add.
People can also add their own plants. Each garden has a water source nearby. A few still need adopters. If interested, contact the MHNA office at mhna@pro-ns.net or 612-623-7633.

The MHNA Community Flower Garden is at 8th St SE & 10th Ave SE. It is a large colorful full sun garden that brightens up a bleak corner backing up to 35W. What a difference it has made to this entry point in our neighborhood. Thanks to the many volunteers who have worked on it for the past six years.

On Tuesday May 8, 2007 we will be doing our spring cleaning at the site.

Volunteers are needed - bring your own tools. 4:30 pm.

We have sign-up sheets for garden care this summer. Volunteers sign up to
care for the garden ( weed, water, deadhead) for a week at a time. The weeks
begin on Saturday and go to the following Friday. Your reward - a beautiful
bouquet you pick yourself!

To sign up for a week contact Melissa at: mhna@pro-ns.net or 612-623-7633

Neighborhood gardener Ardes Johnson has some extra plants to give away.

People should contact her directly:
612-378-1166

or email: johns779@tc.umn.edu

She would need to supervise the digging. The plants are:

Blue Hyssop
Ox Eye Sunflower
Obedient Plant
Cup Plant
Ironweed

According to Master Gardener Cindy Johnson, these are native plants that are described as “coarse” and rangy in all instances. They are good plants for large perennial borders and for rain gardens in mostly sun exposure in case people are installing new ones or adding to an existing one.

More detail (my source is Lynn Steiner’s Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota):

cup plant : 3-8 feet high, has a sunflower type flower. likes moist to average soil

oxeye sunflower: 3-5 feet high. likes moist to dry soil

ironweed: reddish purple flowers, 3-6 feet high. likes moist soil

obedient plant: aggressive spreader. 2-3 feet high. likes moist soil. tolerates sun and part shade

giant blue hyssop: 2-4 feet. likes sun to partial shade, well drained soil.

The RJCA board of directors is seeking candidates to fill openings in July.

The board is especially interested in candidates who will expand our board profile.

Contact Laila Davis at ldavis@rjca-inc.org or gena Gerard by phone 612-746-0788.