Neighborhood Association News

There are 4 topics in this annoucement:
1) School board candidate forum on October 14 in place of our regular meeting
2) School district boundary changes and the proposed shift of the Montessori program from Ben Franklin to Sunset Terrace, including notices of a meeting being held TONIGHT, Sept 23, with one at Mayo High School at 7:30pm
3) A need for new volunteers on the Meadow Park Neighbors board
4) Suspension of future Meadow Park Neighborhood meetings until new board members step forward

Respectfully,
Janet Krueger
Secretary, Meadow Park Neighbors

1. School board candidate forum on October 14 in place of our regular meeting
   At our last meeting, I announced that our next meeting would be on Tuesday, October 14 with the candidates for school board. However, the League of Women Voters decided to schedule their forum for the school board candidates on the same day. It is now scheduled for:
   October 14 School Board Candidate Forum
   Sponsored by League of Women Voters of Rochester
   7:00PM - 9:10PM School Board Candidates
   Edison Building - Rochester Public Schools
   615 7th Street SW
   Free and open to the public

   In deference to that forum, we are cancelling our October meeeting. Please consider attending the League of Women Voters forum to raise any issues you have with the school board and to help determine who to vote for in November.

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Police Chief Roger Peterson addressed the crowd at the September 11 neighborhood meeting.

On September 11, the Eastside Pioneers, Meadow Park and Slatterly Park Neighborhood Associations joined together to organize a community wide forum focusing on the recent neighborhood shootings in Rochester.

The gym at the Boys and Girls Club was packed with over 300 neighbors interested in having local officials answer their questions. The panel included Sgt. Jeff Stilwell, supervisor of the police department's narcotics unit; Steve Thompson, director Rochester Police Department Narcotics and Gang Unit; Olmsted County Attorney, Mark Ostrem; a representative from Victim Services, Police Chief Roger Peterson; Olmsted County Sheriff Chief Deputy Mark Darnell; and Crime Prevention volunteer Anthony Deveroux.

Meadow Park neighbors Dorothy Thompson, Janet Krueger, and Amy Thompson meet with candidates for House Seat 30A: Jake Dettinger and Tina Liebling.

On Tuesday, September 9, the Meadow Park Neighbors held a candidate forum for house district 30A. Their special guests were Jake Dettinger (R) and Tina Liebling (D). Neighbors were able to speak to them and ask any questions they had.

Mayor Brede's office recently received an community inquiry concerning the proper disposal of prescription medication.

Rich Peter, Director of Environmental Health Olmsted County, referred the caller to the posted information from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's website. It is excellent information to keep in mind to keep our neighborhood’s safe and healthy.

There is some evidence that these compounds cause problems in the environment when disposed by flushing them down the toilet.

A bird's eye view of the Folwell neighborhood National Night Out party. Photo by Bob Sixta, RNeighbors Board member and Folwell neighbor.

Rochester neighbors set a record during this year's National Night Out! Over 21,000 people attended 173 neighborhood events including potlucks, picnics, ice cream socials, and even street parties. In 2007 16,754 people participated.

The Eastside Pioneers Neighborhood Association
(ESPNA) is relieved to hear that no one was hurt
when a Burlington, Northern, Santa Fe (BNSF) train derailed and several tanker cars exploded down in a remote location in central Oklahoma.

The BNSF train was carrying crude oil and ethanol and derailed just northeast of Luther, Oklahoma and north of state Highway 66 at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday August 22, sending a giant fireball into the sky and forcing evacuations within a half-mile of the area.
There were multiple explosions after the derailment and the smoke could be seen across much of central Oklahoma. It even showed up for a time on Advantage Doppler HD, KOCO TV 5, Oklahoma City’s weather radar. Fortunately, the fire and explosions occurred in an area that is primarily rural.

A couple of weeks ago a few members from the Slatterly Neighborhood Association and the Eastside Pioneers Neighborhood Association (ESPNA) were discussing ways we could better serve our neighborhoods.

We thought one of the immediate ways we could help would be to try to provide our neighbors with enough information to make an informed decision regarding a city election. Since we live in the Fourth Ward we thought we would focus on that city council race.

As a convenience to Fourth Ward voters, we decided to host a pre-primary candidates forum, centrally located, on-site, here in the Fourth Ward, Tuesday, September 2, 7:00 PM at the City of Life Outreach Center, 804 East Center Street.

The peace and security of a quiet residential neighborhood, within our association, was shattered recently when several gun totting thugs went on a shooting spree leaving in their wake a frightened, bullet riddled neighborhood.

The Eastside Pioneers Neighborhood Association (ESPNA) does not want to see anything like this occur again in our neighborhood or for that matter anywhere else in the city. We would like to invite you to a neighborhood discussion on the shootings at the Boys and Girls Club, Thursday, September 11 at 7:00 PM. We have invited several guests including but not limited to law enforcement, the county attorney’s office, victim services as well as elected officials.

The Eastside Pioneers Neighborhood Association distributed flyers this morning (8.17.08) in our neighborhood concentrating on the area surrounding the scene of yesterday's (8.16.08) shooting. We also issued a press release to the Post-Bulletin and the local television stations. Both are copied below and as you will see we will be taking special interest in whoever is prosecuted for the shootings within our neighborhood association.

Something more has to be done to stop these shootings.

This flyer was distributed to homes within our neighborhood association surrounding the area where yesterday’s shooting occurred. Our neighborhood association is bordered by Silver Lake Park on the north, the Federal Medical Center on the east, Fourth Street SE on the south and the Zumbro river on the west.