Welcome new residents

It was difficult for those in Green Acres who knew Dorothy Spencer to accept the fact that her health was failing and that it was time for her to sell her home and move closer to her daughter in Mooresville where she could get more care and attention on a daily basis from her family.

But now that the transition has taken place we are so pleased that Phil and Noriko chose Dorothy’s house in Green Acres Neighborhood as their place to settle in Monroe County.

It was Indiana University that brought Phil and Noriko to Bloomington. Phil came in 1989 to earn his B.A. and stayed on for the laid-back lifestyle. Noriko arrived in 1994 and eventually earned a Ph.D. After post-doc work at UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she returned to work for the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) beginning in 2001. Phil says that the two met by providence in 2002. They were married in Bloomington in June 2004 and went to Kauai for their honeymoon.

Noriko teaches information science courses in SLIS and conducts research in the area of social informatics, which is the study of how computerization influences society. “My work keeps me busy,”she says, “but when I have time, I like to watch movies and work out at the gym, especially the kick-bo class.”

This summer they plan to build a brick porch onto the back of their house. It will provide a nice place to relax in the evening or to hang out with friends and have cook-outs.

Phil works as a reference assistant for the Monroe County Public Library in addition to teaching three classes at the IU library school. He’s an avid reader of science fiction, a semi-skilled musician, a fan of IU basketball (He’s been going to games since 1975), and he actually enjoys mowing the yard and trimming hedges. He,too, is looking forward to working on the new porch project.

The story of how “Ole Fat Bellers”, their cat, became part of the family is an interesting one...

Phil worked at Little Zagreb for four years before attending library school. One of the servers had allergies that were getting worse as she got older, and she asked Phil if he’d be interested in one of her cats. You could say that it was love at first sight. Ole Fat Bellers was two at the time and about 6 pounds lighter. He'll be nine in October and has settled comfortably into the new neighborhood at a steady weight of 15 pounds.

When asked what they like about Green Acres Neighborhood Noriko replied. “The original reason I decided to live in this neighborhood was because it's so close to where I work. I try to ride my bike as much as possible when the weather is nice. The lots here are bigger than newer developed sub-divisions, and people are willing to work to make the neighborhood better.” She also likes the fact that each house has it’s own character, unlike many newer neighborhoods where they all look so much alike.

Phil says, “I like being close to downtown Bloomington and IU. I can ride my bike to work or to grab a bite to eat (you've probably seen me tooling around the neighborhood on an old Little 500 bike). I also like the fact that the neighborhood association is so active. I was very excited to learn that there was a forum via which I could meet my neighbors and discuss issues of concern and interests relevant to the neighborhood and its place in the Bloomington community.”
Originally Posted by Melody

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New Speaker Series in 2006

GANA will sponsor a Speaker Series starting with the first meeting of 2006, January 25, at 7 p.m., at the First United Church, 2420 E. 3rd. St.

Our official meeting will be preceded by the first speaker in our new Speaker Series, Suzie Johnson, the director of Bloomington’s H.A.N.D. (Housing and Neighborhood Development), who will inform us about home and neighborhood improvement grants as well as owner/rental registration. After her talk and time for questions we will enjoy a short break with refreshments and hold a short meeting where we will discuss future possible speakers, summarize the results of our recent neighborhood survey, and finally, set up and sign up for committees based on interest-groups as found in the survey.

Until further notice, we will meet monthly on the last Wednesday of each month at the First United Church, at 7 pm, and, except for the first speaker, our speakers will follow the meeting and start at 8 pm.

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Neighborhood Boundaries

* North: 10th Street
* South: E. 3rd St.
* East: 45/46 Bypass
* West: Union Street

Original post by Melody

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GANA Welcomes You

Green Acres Neighborhood Association (GANA for short) would like to welcome you to their website. GANA's goal is to foster more communication amongst the Green Acres residents and provide them with a forum for their thoughts and concerns, as well as keeping them informed on upcoming neighborhood events. This site is intend to be a "virtual community," with the goal or maintaining and nuturing a physical community.

GANA meets in person on the from 7-9 p.m. on the last Wednesday of every month at the First United Church on 3rd St. We discuss neighborhood business for the first hour, break briefly for refreshments, then usually have a local speaker or video about community-building. The meetings are free and open to all Green Acres residents and friends, so please come, meet your neighbors, and join us for refreshments (did we mention those?)

To leave feedback on any article in these pages, just click the "comments" link directly below it. To join GANA's email list serve, just sign up at any neighborhood meeting or event.

Original post by Melody.

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Permit parking areas

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GANA Meeting Minutes

GANA meeting report 10/30/05

4:00 p.m. October 30, 2005, at the 3rd St. Bakehouse

Attending
Nathan Harmon, Maggie Jesseph, Georgia Schaich, Jelene Campbell, Julia Jackson, Millie Jackson, Sylvia van Bruggen, Ann Kreilkamp

Agenda

• Quiet Nights
• Sudden House Tear Down
• Speaker Series
• Surveys
• Looking Ahead

Summary
We planned for a Speaker Series, to begin in January; we were upset by the sudden house tear down at the end of 7th street; we discussed possible events for next year; and we agreed to get the neighborhood surveys out, NOW!

The Process
First, GANA treated everyone to drinks, and so the one primary impression of this meeting for me was all the whipped cream slurping. Meanwhile, Georgia reported on the effort made by students from the IUSA (Indiana University Student Association) to get Quiet Nights flyers on doorknobs of Green Acres houses, with limited success. (They had hoped for eight or ten volunteers but only two or three showed up on the evening of September 8.)

Millie and Nathan both came with news that they had witnessed the demolition of a house at the end of 7th Street next to the Bypass. According to signs plastered in front of it beforehand, the house had been “purchased by the state of Indiana in cooperation with the federal government.” Millie and Nathan were both astonished at how the house was torn down and carted away with no regard to recycling or sustainability, presumably to prepare years in advance for the widening of the Bypass which, due to peak oil, may never be built! Both are writing letters to the editor about this. Watch for them in the H-T sometime later this week.

Most of the meeting focused on the upcoming monthly Speaker Series. We decided that, except for an evening when we would ask the police and fire departments to give us a talk on neighborhood safety, we would pull all our speakers from with the Green Acres Neighborhood, with the intention to underscore the purpose and value of the soon-to-be-delivered surveys that hopefully will document the many and diverse talents and capacities of those who live here. Lots of names came to mind of people that might be interested and interesting to others, including someone who knows Feng Shui, a master gardener, a permaculturists and natural building person, a person to talk on wellness, one who could talk about non-violent communication, another who knows astrology, etc. etc. Please, if you would like to be a speaker, or if you know someone from whom you think the neighborhood might benefit from their knowledge and/or experience, please email me and we’ll add them to the list. We aim to start the Speaker Series in January, hopefully at the Baptist Church on 3rd St., and invite attendance from the greater Bloomington area.

Finally, Georgia listed events that we have sponsored in the past or that we have wanted to sponsor, so that we can be thinking about them in advance. They include: PlantShare (in April), Clean-Up (in Spring), a Neighborhood Festival (in September, timed to greet new and returning students), and a Small and Simple Grant for a neighborhood project (proposal due in June) — for example, how about a sidewalk on the north side of 3rd St. between Hillsdale and Overhill? Moreover, we agreed that within this next year we need to put out more information about the neighborhood, both to help us network with each other and for those who might consider purchasing a house with the intent to live in it. Such projects include the website, a banner, and a brochure. If you have the skills and wish to help us with any of these informational efforts, please email me. Thanks!

Finally, four or five of those attending agreed to meet on Thursday, November 3 at Georgia’s house at 1:30 p.m. to do final collation of the surveys with neighborhood emergency preparedness kits and loop them on the doorknobs of all neighborhood houses within a few days after that. So, when you get your survey, please do fill it in and get it back to us. That way we can collect the information and let you know who else you are enjoying this good life with in our Green Acres neighborhood.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ann Kreilkamp
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GANA Meeting Minutes

4:00 p.m. October 18, 2005, at 3rd St. Bakehouse

Attending
Alex Schneider, Nathan Harman, Maggie Jesseph, Jelene Campbell, Adam Lowe, Georgia Schaich

Agenda

• Small and Simple Grant ideas
• CERT
• IU Parking Lots
• Neighborhood Street Lighting

The Process
After settling into our corner of the restaurant with drinks and personal introductions for those who had not met before, we threw out ideas for a Small and Simple Grant. (These grants, all under $1000, are given out three times each year by HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development), a Bloomington city department. Ideas included the following: using the website as a tool for communication within the neighborhood, a Neighborhood Festival with a music theme to attract others into Green Acres, developing a strong corps of block captains to represent their neighbors at GANA executive meetings, and creating kiosks on strategic corners to be used as neighborhood communication boards. The grants are due in February, April and June, and if funds are awarded, then projects must be completed in August, September and November.

Green Acres has been asked to start a Neighborhood CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) by Mark Brostoff, chairperson of the Monroe County Citizen Corps Council. It is a program that trains people in neighborhoods, the workplace, and schools for basic disaster response skills. For example, CERTs are trained in the following areas: Fire Suppression, Urban Search and Rescue, Medical Operations, and Emergency Preparedness. To have our own CERT we would need to train between 10 and 15 people. We could work together to set the training dates. Check out the Monroe County Citizens Corps website at http://cgi.hoosier.net/~mccc/cgi-bin/main.php. There is a section on CERT. Adam Lowe and Nathan Harman expressed interest.

A discussion followed that revolved around the news and rumors about IU planning to build parking lots close to Elm Heights and Green Acres with major construction in 2006 through 2007. Those at the meeting wanted more information. Nathan expressed an interest in starting a committee that could follow up on this neighborhood concern by expressing our feelings to the IU Trustees in letter form or in person at a scheduled meeting.

As a follow-up Georgia reported facts on her walk with Lois Sabo-Skelton through the neighborhood on the evening of September 11 to survey where additional lighting might be useful — including five streetlights that are out and haven’t been replaced! A discussion evolved that included the following comments, pro and con: lots of cars from college students coming and going in high pedestrian areas; high lights throw more light but this not always desirable to those living in homes near them; better lighting would make the area safer for bikers, walkers, children, students, the elderly — everyone; pedestrians could be mugged, hit by a car, not see obstacles; GANA should promote a bike and walking path through the neighborhood; our city needs to explore solar lighting and the use of timers on streetlights during times when lights not needed; streetlights add to heat and light bubble around our city.

I will pass this information along to Tim Mayer who will involve our neighborhood in the next step of deciding what funds are available to improve dark areas of our neighborhood.

The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m.

Georgia Schaich
Interim scribe

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GANA Executive Committee Meeting

GANA (Green Acres Neighborhood Association)
Ad Hoc Executive Committee Meeting
7:00 pm, August 23, at Georgia Schaich’s home

Attending
Georgia Schaich, Tim Mayer, Stanley Routon, Julia Jackson, John Gaus, Jessica Gaus, Lois Sabo-Skelton, Ann Kreilkamp

Agenda

• Proposed use of a now vacant tree-covered lot between 2605 and 2611 East third street.
• Streetlights
• Next regular meeting

Summary
We said no to the idea, in fact, NO WAY!

The Process
Re: Proposed use of lot on 3rd Street. The property in question has no numbered address. 2605 is a house, and 2611 the now defunct mattress store. Tim Mayer, a Green Acres resident and City Councilman-at-large was approached by Tony Laudermilk (who works for Mary Friedman, who owns many properties in Green Acres) to sound him and the Green Acres neighborhood out on the idea of trying to get a zoning variance on the property so that Mary can put a duplex up on it.

Tim explained that though all of Green Acres is zoned “single family residential,” there’s a long history of zoning challenges for certain properties on 3rd street. At this point, there is only one exception to “single family residential,” and that is the three new duplexes on Roosevelt that back up to two new single family homes on Jefferson — all built for student housing. In this case the neighborhood did meet with the developer, Doug McCoy, and gave the green light to the project because he improved the neighborhood, including continuing Roosevelt through from 4th street to 3rd street, stormwater drainage infrastructure, and a pedestian pathway from Roosevelt to Jefferson. So lots of investment in the public good offset the impacts of the new duplexes. At the time of approval, the city’s Planning staff assured the neighbors that this was the only area in Green Acres that could meet the level of infrastructure improvements and thus Planning’s support for the project.

In the case of this new proposed use of the now tree-covered lot on 3rd, the owner wants to either cut a new driveway on 3rd street or cut an alleyway through from Overhill along the fence line in back of the 3rd street properties to the proposed new duplex.

The ad hoc executive committee discussed this proposed use of the tree-covered lot and decided against, due to the following:

• problems with parking
• more traffic
• appearance (this lot is narrow and deep, what woud this duplex look like?)
• please, no alley!
• most important, there are NO INCENTIVES from the owner of this property to persuade Green Acres residents that the public good would be enhanced despite expected negative impacts. Such incentives might include (we’re thinking big here….): gifting a house in Green Acres that Mary currently owns to GANA to serve as a neighborhood center; purchasing a lot in Green Acres for a neighborhood park; convincing and helping the city to create an underpass to the other side of 3rd street from Overhill; and/or continuing the sidewalk on the north side of 3rd to the bypass.

The day after our ad hoc executive committee meeting Tim talked with Mary Friedman who said that the reason she wanted to put a duplex on the property is that she intended to rent to couples, rather than students. However, Tim pointed out that there is no way Planning could either require or enforce her intent; that, in Planning lingo, her intent couldn’t be a “condition of approval.”

Re: streetlights. The city has responded to our request for more street lights, and wants to know where they are most needed. So, if you are interested in this project, then bring a your flashlight and gather with us at Georgia’s house (202 S. Hillsdale) at 7:45 on Sunday, September 11 and we will walk the neighborhood to locate its darkest intersections.

Re: Meetings. Our regular meetings take place at 4 pm on the third Sunday of each month at the new Bakehouse on 3rd St.

NEXT MEETING: SEPTEMBER 18.

Ann Kreilkamp
Scribe (Secretary)

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Ice Cream Social

July 3, 2005

Dear neighbors,

I just returned from three weeks in Turkey where I reveled in the generous, heart-felt warmth of the people in the villages of Anatolia. Imagine if you will, a jet-lagged American woman sitting with an old, white-haired Arabic-speaking Muslim man in the shadowy bowels of a tiny, dusty antique shop. He had been stationed on a little stool just outside. After seeing me pass and greet him three times he kindly beckoned me in. For what seemed like a long time we plumbed the soul in each other’s eyes and drank tea (“chai”) from tiny glasses. Then, gesturing to a obscure shelf under a table loaded with old radio parts he produced for my astonished admiration ancient, leather-bound, intricately decorated copies of the Koran while, in a parallel track, I dreamed of us back here in the U.S. letting go of ambitious busyness to remember our ancient human relish in the time-honored custom of just sitting around in each other’s company.

Little did I in faraway Turkey know that on or around that same day a group of GANA residents in Indiana would suddenly band together and, with only a few weeks’ lead time, summon up a taste of village life!

On July 3, from 2 to 4 pm, at the corner of 4th and Hillsdale, a poster sporting a big ice cream cone drawing announced a “Two Scoop Neighborhood Salute” that beckoned us to shaded tables graced with little fluttering flags next to a vinyl tent-covered table groaning with 12 cartons of ice cream. Neighbors, children, and friends of neighbors clustered together, talking and slurping French Vanilla and Chocolate Mint and 10 other sweet and sweeter flavors in lazy enjoyment of a warm and humid summer Sunday.

Of the 100 ice cream cups donated for the event, only 46 remained, so we figure the hastily arranged party drew over 50 people! As an added bonus, some we haven’t seen before signed up for this email list. Nor did most of us “eat and run,” but lingered, telling each other our stories, getting to know each other better, catching up on neighborhood news.

Now that so many of us recognize each other from previous GANA events over the past year and a half, our shyness has receded. Rather than starting out from scratch, we can now greet each other as friends and continue where we left off. Indeed, after this event especially I would say that it does appear we are morphing into the neighborhood we imagined — a palpable, throbbingly alive village within the greater Bloomington municipality.

Here’s a short run-down on how the party came about.

Sometime in March Jelene Campbell alerted us that she had sent in a nomination to a contest sponsored by Edy’s Ice Cream for a free “Two Scoop Neighborhood Salute” Ice Cream Party. At least two others, Diane Dormant and Georgia Schaich, also submitted nominations. On June 16 Diane found out that her nomination had won! Edy's told her that the party packet was worth $359 (12 cartons of ice cream, napkins, bowls, spoons, 12 ice cream dippers, a disposable camera, table cloth, coupons, and free shipping) and that they wanted the winning neighborhood to hold its party over the July 4th holiday weekend.

Diane called Georgia, who agreed to quickly shepherd the idea into reality. Georgia put out a call for help, and about a dozen neighbors pitched in to make it happen, lickety-split: first email June 16, organizational meeting June 22, 350 flyers printed by the city June 24 and delivered door to door the weekend prior to the event.

Big thanks go to Georgia and Bill Schaich, Patricia Thompson, and Kathy Ruesink for supplying the tables and chairs that made it easy to sit and chat in the shade, Julia Jackson for the fun, eye-catching poster and flyers, Noriko Hara, Phil Eskew, Mariam Shaaban, Lois Sabo-Skelton, and Stanley Routon for walking those flyers to all our homes, Peggy Stuckey, Julia and Noriko for scooping ice cream, Kathy Ruesink for the beautiful bouquet of flowers from her garden — plus uncounted others who helped to clean up afterwards.

May we continue to come alive!

Ann Kreilkamp
Scribe (secretary)

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Brief Outline of City Services

Trash collection

Contact: Public Works Department at 812-349-3410

Trash collection occurs every Monday morning in Green Acres. Place trash at the night before your scheduled pickup. Each 32 gallon container or bag must have an yellow trash sticker attached to it and may not weigh more than 40 lbs. Trash stickers may be purchased for two dollars ($2) at local grocery or hardware stores. Contact the Public Works Department for your scheduled collection day. Click here for more information.

Large Item Colletion (Year-Round)
phone: 812-349-3410

Description

Weekly Curbside Collection
Large items such as sofas, chairs, tables, and similar items can be placed at the curb on your regular trash day throughout the year. Each item must have two (2) city sanitation trash (yellow) pick-up tags attached.

Monthly Appliance Collection
Large appliances such as refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, and similar items can be placed on the curb on the last Friday of each month of the year. You must call the Public Works Department at 812-349-3410 by 5:00 p.m. the last Thursday of each month and inform us that you are setting the appliances out for collection. Each item must have two (2) city sanitation trash (yellow) pick-up tags attached.

Non Collectible Items
Large item such as construction materials, tires, or electronic equipment such as televisions, and computer systems are not eligible for this program and will not be collected. For information regarding disposal methods of these items, please contact the Monroe County Solid Waste District at 812-349-2868.

Parking

You may have noticed that Green Acres streets have that small town feel, and parking can be problematic. Please be advised that parking on the street requires a permit in some parts of Green Acres. Click on GANA maps to view which areas. More information about Bloomington's parking permit program is available here:

Parking Permit Program

Metered, neighborhood and reserved parking

Parking Enforcement at 812-349-3436

On the street for more than 72 hours

Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477

Car(s) parked on the lawn
Planning Department at 812-349-3423

Rental Property Issues

Contact: Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) at 812-349-3420

The Rental Occupancy Permit Program helps ensure that rental property in Bloomington is safe and habitable for city residents. HAND staff can help you obtain property owner information and can answer many questions about rentals in Bloomington.

HAND staff will provide assistance if your landlord fails to make requested repairs that are code related.

Original post by Melody January 17, 2006

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