Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood e-News November 25, 2013
The DMN e-News and an occasional hard copy DMN News are published by the Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association (DMNA) on an “as-needed” schedule. The Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association, Inc. has been working to unite neighbors to solve mutual problems and promote fellowship among neighbors since 1973. Our neighborhood is in Madison & Fitchburg.
President & News contact: Mary Mullen, mmullen@chorus.net 298-0843
Website: http://www.dunnsmarsh.org
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dunns-Marsh-Neighborhood-Association/18765419350 <file://localhost/pages/Dunns-Marsh-Neighborhood-Association/18765419350>
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Editor’s Note: No time to double proofread this, so please forgive any errors.
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ARTICLE LIST
DATES & DEADLINES
1 - Free Thanksgiving Dinners, Thur., Nov. 28
2 - 2013-14 Bus Lines - Call for Poetry by Nov. 30, Kids and Adults
3 - Hints for Writing a Short Poem for Madison metro Bus Contest
4 - 5th Annual Arboretum Local Products Fair, Sun., Dec. 1
5 - Health Care Insurance for YOU! Heath Fair, Dec. 7
(Attachments: “1 Heath Ins options.jpg” & “2 United Way Insurance Help.jpg”}
6 - Affordable Care Act Editorial from a Long-Ago Council Member Lucy Ebisch Gibson
7 - Public Meeting for Verona Road Project, Stage 2
8 - Learn about Accessory Dwelling Structures at Dec. 12 DMNA Council Meeting
STRICTLY NEIGHBORHOOD
9 - DMNA Council Gains 4 New Members to Total 11 (Attachment: “3 Council members. jpg”)
10 - Getting to Know Each Other with Kiosk Project (Attachment: “4 pics kiosk.jpg”)
11 - DMNA Accomplishments - 2012-2013
12 - Confrontation with a Shovel Operator
13 - Former DMNA Council Member Chris Lowry Interviewed on NPR
14 - Former DMNA President Solare O’Brien-Brethorst Has Baby
15 - Community Gardens Thrive in Marlborough Park
BIKES
16 - First Span of Cannonball Bridge at PD Goes Up
17 - Cannonball Bike Path Bridge over Beltline Opened October 24
18 - Future Cannonball Phases of Construction in the Works (Attachment: “3 Cannonball map11/22/13.jpg”)
ENVIRONMENTAL
19 - Traffic Noise Affects Wildlife
20 - Madison Launches Household Battery Recycling
21 - Clean Lakes, Land, for Our Quality of Life
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DATES & DEADLINES
1 - Free Thanksgiving Dinners, Thur., Nov. 28
For a number of years a Thanksgiving dinner was provided in our neighborhood, but that isn’t happening this year.
However, there are several options outside the neighborhood to participate in a community meal, and two churches will eaven deliver a meal to you if you make a reservation by their deadline.
The following information is printed in the most recent issue of Isthmus.
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 701 Raymond Road., 11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. (271-6633, if you have questions). This is across from the Meadowood Shopping Center. This is the closest location to our neighborhood.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 605 Spruce St., South Madison, noon on Thanksgiving Day. Homebound? They will deliver a Thanksgiving meal to you if you RSVP by noon on Monday, November 25, 251-8405.
First Congregational United Church of Christ, at Breeze Terrace/University Avenue, 12 noon to 3 p.m. Delivery is available if you call in by 4 p.m., Monday, November 25, 233-9751.
First United Methodist Church, downtown near the Square at 203 Wisconsin Avenue, 12 noon until 2 p.m., 256-9061
2 - 2013-14 Bus Lines - Call for Poetry by Nov. 30, Kids and Adults
Submit in Verse: What's Your Madison? by Nov. 30
Area residents, middle and high school students, transit riders & writers: Metro Transit and Madison's Poets Laureate <http://www.cityofmadison.com/MAC/poet.cfm> invite you to send short poems, haiku, prose poems, or excerpts from longer poems, 3-5 lines total to the Bus Lines 2013-14 open call for poetry. The theme is "Write Your Madison." Help us see what you see and hear what you hear. Share your poetry stories about Madison with the thousands of daily passengers who share the bus with you every day for a year, as we cross the Isthmus making connections.
This year we're accepting video poems too, to be featured on Metro's website and YouTube channel. Video poems do not have a line or time limitation, so be creative!
Select poems will be chosen to appear on a variety of Metro materials, including bus flyers, transfer cards, Metro's website, and even on the exterior of the bus! Participants may even have a chance to read their poems at the June 29th Olbrich Gardens Poetry Invitational.
Featured poems will be chosen from the following categories:
- Middle School Students
- High School Students
- Adults (18+)
Students should include name; school, grade, and sponsoring adult if under 18; and best contact for both student AND adult: cell phone/ email, along with 1-3 poems. Adults entrants should include their name and full contact information with their poems.
Authors of selected poems grant Metro Transit permission to display poems in Metro promotional materials.
Reminder: We're interested in reading your version of Madison, and helping a large audience of readers of every age to read it too! Please be "family-friendly" - We're open to a wide range of emotion and experience, but poems with inappropriate language and/or adult content will not be chosen.
from <http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/poetry/>
3 - Hints for Writing a Short Poem for Madison metro Bus Contest
Writing extremely short poems is one of the hardest challenges for a writer. Here are some prompts to get you moving:
We’re looking for “local.” Include specific place names, details, local language. What are the images and experiences Madisonians would recognize! What are the images and experiences you wish we would recognize? Help us hear that.
Free write for fifteen minutes around the theme. After you have filled the time, and the page, read over what you have written. Highlight the three ideas or images that see most interesting and write your poem(s) using those.
Find an old poem or story that you never quite felt was finished. Grab a pair of scissors and cut it into sentences, or even parts of sentences. Start moving those pieces around and see if any new combination works. Even if it doesn’t, it may get your imagination going.
Find a long poem, pick out its strongest line, and make a new, short poem.
Contrasting images and ideas smashed together often make a poem jump off the page. A few vivid detaisl will go a long way in a short poem. So will a good, telling line of dialogue. word choice is really important in a short poem, as are strong, well-chosen verbs, and good titles, if you use one.
Remember that these are public poems. You may want to write about yourself, but you may want to try writing from the point of view of someone else: someone you know, someone you’ve read about, a fictional character, or your neighbor’s shoes, for example. Or you could write about someone historical, contemporary, or mad-up in the third person. In any case you should think about how your poem will speak to others.
from www.cityofmadison.com/metro/poetry/ <http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/poetry/>
4 - 5th Annual Arboretum Local Products Fair, Sun., Dec. 1
'Tis the season to support the local economy, in a setting you love. Come to the Visitor Center on Sunday, December 1 from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. for this annual celebration and sale of local and sustainable arts, crafts and edibles.
The Arboretum will feature over 40 sustainable artists and vendors in a festive atmosphere. Come out to enjoy music and meet all of your holiday shopping needs. Free parking. Suggested $1 donation at the door. Buy Local this holiday season!
from UW Arboretum
5 - Health Care Insurance for YOU! Heath Fair, Dec. 7
(Attachments: “1 Heath Ins options.jpg” & “2 United Way Insurance Help.jpg”}
Well, those health care websites haven’t worked out like they should have, but that doesn’t mean uninsured people should give up. If you are uninsured, this is a must read for you. Information is from a flyer advertising a session at the Boys & Girls Club.
Also see the attachments which detail other places to go for help in filling out an application for Obamacare and other options including BadgerCare if you are below 100% of the poverty level. If these attachements are too blurry to read, call one of the people listed below for information on the yellow flyer and 2-1-1 for the United Way flyer.
Answer these questions first.
Are you 18-64 years old? YES!
Do you have health insurance? Badgercare? NO!
You need to sign up for Obamacare!
Get quality health care you can afford. Choose a plan that is right for you and your family. You can’t be denied coverage, regardless of your health. Financial assistance is available.
A Health Fair is scheduled for Thursday, December 7, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club, 4619 Jenewin Road. Assistance will be provided to help you with your application under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
Please bring your Social Security number and income information such as employer infor, pay stubs, W2, latest tax return.
Need more information? Contact
Selena Pettigrew, 608-217-3639 selenapettigrew@gmail.com <mailto:selenapettigrew@gmail.com>
Gloria Farr, 608-334-6211, alliedwellness@gmail.com <mailto:alliedwellness@gmail.com>
by Mary Mullen
6 - Affordable Care Act Editorial from a Long-Ago Council Member Lucy Ebisch Gibson
[Editor’s note: Recently, I ran across a rant on Facebook from former DMNA Council member and lifetime DMNA member Lucy Ebisch Gibson.. She gave me permission to use it, warning me that she had also already sent it to the newspaper Lucy served on the Council from February 1976 through September 1981. She lives in a different Madison neighborhood now.]
This whole Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) hullaballoo seems like a tempest in a teapot to me. All the news networks throwing up their hands, and crying, “The website won’t work! The website won’t work!” How insane is our 21st century fixation on using the internet?!! There are phones, you know. You can call the ACA and sign up on paper. Here’s the info from the website:
“We can help you complete the entire application process from beginning to end with information you provide over the phone, including reviewing your options and helping you enroll in a plan. We can also answer questions as you fill out an online or paper application. We’re available 24/7. 1-800-318-2596 TTY: 1-855-889-4325”
I hear Medicare had some “glitches” when it started up. But they managed to sign up millions of people using index cards, heaven forfend! Index cards!
“Think outside the box,” people keep saying. How about “think outside the web”????
by Lucy Ebisch Gibson, lifetime DMNA member
7 - Public Meeting for Verona Road Project, Stage 2
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) will hold a public information meeting (PIM) to discuss the Verona Road project in Dane County. It will be held on Wednesday, December 11, 5:30 - 8 p.m., at the Fitchburg Public Library, 5530 Lacey Road, Fitchburg.
A formal 20 minute presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.
The PIM will focus on the Stage 2 portion of the project that extends between Raymond Road and County PD (McKee Road), and County PD between aproximately Hard Rock Road and Commerce Park Drive.
Discussion will include
· the Verona Road/County PD interchange
· the Verona Road/Williamsburg Way interchange
· Aalternatives considered for the intersections on County PD between Fitchrona Road and Verona Road
· the project schedule.
from WisDOT flyer
8 - Learn about Accessory Dwelling Structures at Dec. 12 DMNA Council Meeting
At the second meeting of the new DMNA Council , on Thursday, December 12, the Design Coalition Institute will give a short presentation on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). ADUs are informally known as Granny Flats, Garage Apartments, Mother-in-Law Units, Multi-Generational Homes, and Back Yard Cottages.
The City of Madiosn recently updated its zoing codes to allow for ADUs.
The ADU presentation will be at 8 p.m., lasting about 20 minutes. The DMNA Council business meeting will precede this presentation. The Council business meeting starts at 7 p.m.
Residents are welcome to attend either or both parts of the Council meeting.
Residents who want the Council to discuss a particular topic should comment the president in advance of the December 12 meeting: Mary Mullen, 298-0843, or mmullen@chorus.net.
STRICTLY NEIGHBORHOOD
9 - DMNA Council Gains 4 New Members to Total 11 (Attachment: “3 Council members. jpg”)
After a year when the Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Council dwindled to 5 members because of a death, 2 move-outs, and a drop-away, the Council is now almost to full capacity with 11 members.
At the October 10 Annunal Meeting, DMNA members choose 7 Council members, and at the November 14 Council meeting 4 additional residents rose to the challenge of joining them. Council member Thea Bach has vowed to find a final member who must come from the Allied area of the neighborhood.
Here are the 11 Council members who have volunteered to serve as the governing board of the DMNA until the next Annual Meeting which will be in September or October 2014.
Representing the Marlborough Area
Mary Mullen, President, 298-0843, mmullen@chorus.net
Thea Bach, Secretary, 274-7730 or 239-9810 (She has e-mail but seldom looks at it.)
Yannette Cole, Treasurer, 332-7003, yfcole@gmail.com
Heidi Figueroa, 332-6892, heidivette2003@yahoo.com
Representing the Crawford Area
Deacon Tony Williams, Vice President, (608) 398-8798 (must use area code), adwilliams043@gmail.com
Denise Williams, 213-6639, dwilliams1.love@gmail.com
Lucheia (Lucy) Blue, 274-4080
Selena Pettigrew, 217-3639, selenapettigrew@gmail.com
Representing the Belmar Hills area
Dorothy Krause, 271-7532, dorothyk@charter.net
Rachel Potter, 380-0882, rachelpotter5@yahoo.com
Karen Walters, 335-6747, karen.walters@outlook.com
For a map of the neighborhood showing these different areas, consult the DMNA website at www.dunnsmarsh.org
The Council is a much more diverse group this year. Two members are native Spanish speakers, bilingual in English. Four are African American. There’s also a range of ages and experience on the Council. Three have served several years on the Council while 8 are totally new. Still, most members have lived in the neighborhood for a while: the range is from a few months, 5 years, a decade and more, and up to 45 years. There’s also diversity in living arrangements. Four members live in apartments, one in a duplex, and six in single-family homes.
If you know anyone from the Allied area who would like to serve on the Council, please ask that person to call either Thea Bach or Mary Mullen.
by Mary Mullen
10 - Getting to Know Each Other with Kiosk Project (Attachment: “4 pics kiosk.jpg”)
“You know what it looks to me. Looks can be deceiving. Take time to look beneath the surface and see what we’re all about. Come out and get to know us. We represent love, pain, diversity, hope and achievement, development.”
These were the words of Valerie Williams, one of the volunteers who helped install the mosaic blocks under the information kiosk outside of Revival Ridge at the corner of Jenewein Road and Allied Drive. She had been looking at the tiles, seeing at first only a jumble of color, nothing more.
But as she looked, as we all looked, we could see a lot more. Here was a cheerful round sun with a face on it. There was a blue heart, and over there a red one. A rainbow poured over another. A whirlwind of many colors swirled on that one. A yelllow ribbon surrounded by deep purple glass adorned another, while a gray turtle with green flippers swam in blue water over there. A big red W bespoke that this is in Wisconsin, although others depicted palm trees and flowers. One that we placed centrally spoke for the aspirations of the maker: “WE ARE ONE.”
As Valerie noted, the tiles were only symbolic of what else was happening. We were a multi-racial group, and she was expressing a longing for community with people who now judge Allied Drive mainly by the negative publicity it gets. As a white woman, by default, I represented the many, many whites who might not have much contact with people on Allied Drive. Her words were a plea: Look beyond our color. Come over to Allied Drive and get to know us as people, people who love, people who may be in pain, people who are as diverse in personality as you, people who have hopes, people who achieve.
Friday, November 15, developed slowly. I had arrived around 10:20 a.m.to find a note from Christina Kantor, the head of the project. Could I find a wheelbarrow and rakes? I went back home to get them. Christina was a former UW intern who had worked with the ADMNA (Allied Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association) to get the grant that funded the kiosk and mosaic project. She soon returned with the load of 35 foot-square tiles and some bags of sand. They had been created by several community groups under her tutelage. They are similar to the mosaic tiles around the Marlborough Park community garden sandbox and water spigots.
As we unloaded the tiles from Christina’s van, Sina Davis, of Mothers in the Neighborhood, helped and then went searching for more people to volunteer on the project. She came up with the Coleman family which was the girls Shaundra, Carmen, Asia, and Felicia, available because school was out due to a teacher’s convention; Valerie Williams and Perry Coleman; and Timothy Collins and his fiancé Janie Thompkins. Selena Davis, ADMNA president and now also a DMNA Council member dropped by.
The Coleman girls raked leaves and then swept the sidewalk. Valerie Williams swept and Perry Coleman raked. Timothy Collins and I found place to dump wheelbarrow loads of dirt that had been left in piles by the contractor, and he continued to haul more loads. Janie Thompkins was a jack of all trades, sweeping, loading the wheelbarrows of dirt, and later, with the Coleman girls, tamping the pea gravel and sand and then sweeping the grout into the spaces between the tiles to ready it for a water bath. In the middle of this, Rachel Potter, new DMNA Council member, came to help out too. We were a dozen altogether.
It was the perfect day for this work - sunny and crisp with a pleasant breeze. After a few hours, as the job neared completion, I left. I felt totally refreshed not only because of the outdoor work in good weather, but because I had been rejuvenated by participating in a little of the love, pain, diversity, hope, and achievement of the people on Allied Drive.
by Mary Mullen
11 - DMNA Accomplishments - 2012-2013
This list of Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association accomplishments over the past year was prepared for the October 10 Annual Meeting. The DMNA hasn’t been lazy by any means.
1. Installed 2 Little Free Libraries, Whenona Drive and Lumley Road, 10/20/12
2. Successfully opposed eliminating Bus Route 18 loop on Allied, Crescent, & Red Arrow, April 2013
3. Sponsored many special presentations/events in & for the neighborhood.
· 10/25/12 - meeting on aesthetics related to Verona Road with Professor Carrie McAndrews
· 3/6/13 - presentations by Madison Alder candidate and MPD Community Liaison Officer
· 3/19/13 - special Marsh presentations by Fitchburg & Madison engineers
· 4/3/13 - on art projects related to Verona Rd.
· 5/1/13 - presentations by mosaic artists
· 5/30/13 - tour of neighborhood with mosaic artist Marcia Yapp
· 6/121/13 - Make Music Madison, outdoor music co-sponsored with Prairie UU Society
· 8/2/13 - Annual DMNA Neighborhood Picnic in Marlborough Park
· 8/22/13 - Visioning /Design session with mosaic artist Marcia Yapp
Make Music Madison and the annual picnic were most poputlar with over 60 attending each event.
4. Revised, printed and assembled 10 more binders with information about the neighborhood to distribute to new residents.
5. Neighborhood Sign - Submitted final report to the City of Madison and received grant money of $3,310.06, November 2012.
6. Published 12 issues of the Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood e-News, 4 shorter e-mail notices, and 3 hardcopy flyers delivered door-to-door.
7. Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association website went live in February 2013 www.dunnsmarsh.org <http://www.dunnsmarsh.org> after months of work starting in October 2012.
8. DMNA Neighborhood Council met 10 times.
9. Council members kept abreast of developments, participated in meetings or events, and called or wrote to city staff about neighborhood issues.
· drug/neighborhood disturbance issues (mostly fall 2012 - Bob Hague, Jon Holmes)
· Mountain bike park on county land south of Dunn’s Marsh (8/7/13 - Mary Mullen)
· Verona Road project Public Information Meetings (11/13/12 - Donna Sarafin, Mary Mullen)
· Beltline Study Public Information Meeting (9/18/13 - Dorothy Krause, Mary Mullen)
· Art projects related to the Verona Road Project (Donna Sarafin, Mary Mullen, & others)
· Dunn’s Marsh Cleanup and Apache Pond Rain Garden Dedication to David Martin (4/20/13)
· Allied Task Force (DMNA President Bob Hague represents DMNA on the Task Force)
· Allied Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association (Bob Hague & Dorothy Krause)
10. You fill in what might have been forgotten…
12 - Confrontation with a Shovel Operator
The guy in the cockpit of the big shovel on the top of the huge pile of asphalt chunks stopped his yellow machine that had been moving the asphalt and came loping awkwardly down the pile. He didn’t look happy.
“What are you taking pictures for?” he demanded. Are you from OSHA or INSHA?”
“Oh, no,” I said. “Nothing like that. I’m just from from the neighborhood.”
He calmed down and then in a slightly changed voice warned me not to enter the construction site. The site is the former commercial area along the Beltline frontage road, now torn down and serving as a storage area for concrete and asphalt that is being recycled for use in the Verona Road project.
“I’m just staying here on the curb” I said.
Would I want to go and mingle with huge front end loaders, caterpiller-tracked shovels, 50-foot long conveyors, trucks with tires taller than I am, one concrete-crushing machine, and another asphalt grinding machine? Especially when all were in operation?
No, I just like documenting the process, and I stay in the public right of way.
This is the second time my photo-taking has been questioned by construction workers. Two years ago the workers putting up the high voltage poles for ATC objected to my pictures of the work in progress.
What I’m wondering is, what do these guys have to fear? I assume they are doing the job right and my only motive is to show my neighborhood work in progress.
I take my photos anyway.
by Mary Mullen
13 - Former DMNA Council Member Chris Lowry Interviewed on NPR
Chris Lowry was a graduate student when he joined the DMNA Council in 2006. As a student of the interaction between ground (underground) water and surface water, his major interest in the neighborhood was Dunn’s Marsh. He and his wife Sarah were also involved in getting the rain garden in Marlborough Park. It was planted in June 2007.
Chris finished his degree and moved to the State University of New York at Buffalo where he is now a professor. His work there attraacted the interest of National Public Radio host Linda Wertheimer when he involved passersby in his research on stream flow. Basically, he stuck big rulers in the water and asked passing citizens to “text us the water level.”
Through the magic of technology, hear Christ explain his project or read the interview at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=203890657&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=share&utm_campaign
Is there a moral to this story? Well, consider other DMNA Council members who have gone on to more public roles.
David Wallner became a City of Madison Alder. Ron Johnson, Carol Poole, amd Dorothy Krause all became Fitchburg Alders. John (Deke) Welter served on the governor’s …. David Martin served for decades on Fitchburg’s environmental committees.
by Mary Mullen
14 - Former DMNA President Solare O’Brien-Brethorst Has Baby
Former DMNA President Solare O’Brien-Brethorst gave birth to a darling baby girl, Phoebe Eileen Brethorst! She arrived at 10:40 a.m., October 16, weighing 7 lbs. 5oz. and measuring 20 3/4 inches long.
Solare was president of the DMNA during the 2008-2009 year. She and her husband Tanner Brethorst now live in the country between Madison and Wisconsin Dells. Tanner started and runs the Port Huron Brewing Company, Wisconsin Dells.
For more on the brewery, read the Isthmus article from 6/01/12 at http://www.thedailypage.com/eats/article.php?article=36908
If you are Solare’s Facebook friend, you can see a number of pictures of the new baby there.
by Mary Mullen
15 - Community Gardens Thrive in Marlborough Park
a feature article by Patty Stockdale
The day begins (Oct 26)
The late October Saturday morning is crisp. Starting out, you wonder if it will be too chilly for a t-shirt and a nylon jacket, but as the morning warms, so do the gardeners. What is important are work gloves to protect hands from coarse, rough vegetation. It is the last work day of the garden season, and is time to clean up. This morning, forty people arrive over the next hour at the Marlborough Park Community Gardens (MPCG) to begin the fall clean up that will last into the early afternoon.
Community Action Coalition (CAC) Garden Specialist Micah Kloppenburg and community member and leader Angelica Muñoz direct the activities. Angelica has a clip board in her hands to track who shows up. Gardeners have a two-day volunteer component to their community garden obligation, in addition to keeping their garden areas productive and clear of weeds during the summer and fall growing season.
The tilled area is being cleared of corn stalks, tomatillo vines, and wooden stakes used to support tomatoes. Tomatillos are typically grown by the Latino gardeners. A number of non-Latino gardeners are growing tomatillos now to make the green sauce and salsa often served in the Mexican restaurants they frequent. When the work is done today, the tractor that plows in the spring will have no obstacles when the soil is tilled for the coming growing season.
Workers drag vines, stems, and stalks by hand or in wheel barrows to the mounting pile of plant debris and other organic material to compost over winter. Some chicken wire and more sturdy wire fencing, and many stakes for supporting tomatoes or netting for peas or green beans are pulled out and carried to the side of the plots. Eventually everything is carried to the common area for organizing and storage, or discard. Rolled fencing is stacked into low pyramids while stakes are sorted into lengths of small, medium, and long. The Hmong often use strong branches with netted string for their long green beans to wine around as they mature. These branches are stacked, as well, for next year’s use if they are not too brittle.
Perhaps, the most challenging work involves the hoses that snake through the pathways to permit gardeners to more easily water their plants. The hoses hook up to the 6 water hydrants along the edge to splitters where at least 5 hoses can begin. The hydrants are located between the 2 large plots, one 420 feet by 140 feet and the other 320 feet by 80 feet. Often there are many connections between the hose lengths to unscrew to drain the remaining water that can add weight and freeze in the winter. The hundreds of feet of hoses are awkward to pull by hand into coils, which is how they are stored in the central shared shed until the spring. Not so long ago, in 2004, there were just 3 hydrants from which gardeners filled their 5 gallon buckets to carry the nearly 40 pounds of water to their gardens, or else gardeners left the watering to the rain. And in the very early history of the garden there was not even one hydrant.
Community Action Coalition (CAC) facilitates
Community Action Coalition (CAC) is an important organization in Madison, WI. Begun in 1966, CAC supports multiple community services including food pantries, homeless and housing assistance, clothing centers and Koats for Kids, and the community gardens. Sometimes services cross over, as the community gardeners donate fresh vegetables to the food pantries during the growing season.
In all, CAC provides support to over 60 community gardens in Dane County of which 26 are in targeted higher poverty areas, as the Marlborough Park Community Gardens (MPCG) on the southwest side of Madison. Their website www.cacscw.org/gardens.php <http://www.cacscw.org/gardens.php> lists the areas of assistance that CAC provides gardens and include-- leadership development and organizing to help the gardeners grow as community leaders; outreach, information clearinghouse, and referrals for new gardeners; initial tilling, and assistance acquiring garden materials; translation for Hmong, Spanish, Khmer and English-speakers; liaison to city departments who provide services to gardens including land, wood chips, compost & water; conferences and workshops at the gardens; support for youth garden projects & gardeners with physical disabilities; and access to donated seeds and plants
Marlborough Park area
Marlborough Park is over 20 acres and is located on Madison’s southwest side, near the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, south of the beltline. There are many amenities that serve the neighborhood including baseball and soccer fields, playgrounds, a shelter for gatherings, paved paths for biking and walking, and the community gardens. The surrounding residents live on either side of the park with Marlborough neighborhood on the east side along Seminole Highway, and Belmar and Allied Drive neighborhoods on the west side along Verona Road. Both neighborhoods are home to diverse populations. The over 100 gardeners draw mostly from these neighborhoods with over half Latinos, 10% of Hmong and Asian origin, and remaining white.
Gardeners – the Flinn Family
Sharon and Pam Flinn are mother and daughter and residents in the Marlborough neighborhood for over 50 years. They came to garden at Marlborough Park 9 years ago when CAC assumed greater management of the garden. During their tenure, they watched the garden expand from the original plot of over 100 gardens to add a second plot of 65 gardens.
They are hard workers and grow many of the vegetables that they eat, like many of the other gardeners. They store as much as they can by canning and freezing to last until the next growing season. They have been so immersed in the production of their food for years that they cannot say what their savings are by growing their own vegetables. Before they grew vegetables at MPCG, they grew them in their backyard. The MPCG location is on a slight hill with little tree cover. The natural light is good for growing sun loving plants, as tomatoes, eggplants, beans, peas, squash, corn, kale, and spinach. The gardens allow any plants that the gardener can grow, but for Pam growing flowers is a waste of valuable space that she and her mother only use for growing vegetables.
When asked if the MPCG suits their needs, they respond with an enthusiastic yes, and that they pack their 2 garden plots, 20 by 20 feet each, with so many vegetables that they eat vegetables all summer and winter long. Pam says she runs green beans all around her gardens’ edges and was able to “put up” or freeze a bushel of beans. Additionally, they froze 2 bushels of tomatoes and canned 12 half gallon of dill pickles.
Sharon is in her early 70’s and has had hip surgery in the last 5 years. She often brings her folding chair and provides company to Pam as she plants seeds, hoes out weeds, cultivates the soil, and waters from the 55 gallon drum on the north side of the garden. Sharon loves her time in the garden and visits with everyone who passes. Maria Salgado and Marina Soto are her garden neighbors and Sharon often inquires about their health and their families. Some of her neighbors do not speak English, but greets them anyway in English and always has a warm smile.
Many of Madison’s community gardens are not tilled, and less than half of MPCG is tilled by a tractor that CAC rents. Most gardeners can keep their gardens from year to year, but only the no-till gardeners can get into them in early spring to plant. No-till gardeners can leave their fences and stakes up as well as their lawn chairs, paved walkways, birdhouses, and small play areas for children. The no-tilled areas allow perennials like kale, rhubarb, and asparagus to come back each year as well as the many volunteer plants that grow from seeds stored in the soil over winter, as tomatoes and sun flowers.
Gardeners – the Eleganti family
Raju “John” Eliganti lives with his wife and 2 young sons, Indy 5 and Kiren 3, in the Marlborough neighborhood. Four years ago, he started with a half a garden plot in the no-tilled area. Now he has 2 plots. When Raju was a boy living with his family in India, he remembers his mother as an expert gardener. She grew vegetables using an overhead trellis for easy picking as the vegetables became heavy and hung down. He was always surprised to see the vegetables hang from the trellis growing larger and becoming ready to eat for dinner.
Raju involves his sons, so they can learn, as he did as a youth, where vegetables come from and how they grow. They help to gather potatoes, for example. Raju digs them from the soil, and then the boys pick them up and put them in the buckets. The seed potatoes came from CAC which also provides seed packets of every possible vegetable and flower at spring registration. Raju’s sons come often to help their father and care for the garden and plants. They too are excited to see the tomatoes grow bigger.
Raju’s garden is near the common area where he can borrow wheel barrows, hoes, and spades, and where his sons can play in the large sand box and playground equipment. There is also a picnic table for meetings and socializing and an enclosed bulletin board to post garden rules and event announcements. For Raju, one of the important benefits of the community garden is coming to know the other gardeners who pass by to their gardens or who are attending one of the potlucks or community workdays.
The gardening season ends
When the gardening season ends in October, most gardeners are happy to put their gardens to bed. Many have invested a lot into preparing the gardens, cultivating the plants, and harvesting the vegetables and flowers. Once winter has come and gone, most gardeners are excited to get back out there to shake the ice and snow off their boots and start digging. Anyone interested in gardening in one of the community gardens can contact CAC through their website at www.cacscw.org/gardens.php <http://www.cacscw.org/gardens.php> .
by Patty Stockdale
BIKES
16 - First Span of Cannonball Bridge at PD Goes Up
Last night one of the spans was lifted and put into place for the Military Ridge Trail Crossing of Highway PD at Verona Road. One more to go. Then paving. Soon we will be able to navigate this dangerous crossing in safety.
(from Bill Hauda, Wisconsin Nonmontorized Recreation and Transportation Trails Council, on Bikies listserve, 11/21/13)
According to the info out of Fitchburg and DOT, second half will go up in December, and the bridge-to-be will be put to bed for the winter. The bridge itself is scheduled to be ready for use around Memorial Day and the Cannonball Path (from Dunn’s Marsh and parts east) leading to it should be paved in July.
Work has begun again on the Dawley bike hub at Dunn’s Marsh [in Dawley Park]. I’m not holding my breath of dates for that yet tho. Nice to see work happening again anyway.
(From Dorothy Krause, Dane Co. Supervisor & Fitchburg Alder)
17 - Cannonball Bike Path Bridge over Beltline Opened October 24
The long-awaited Cannonball Path Phase 3 bridge over Beltline Highway, just west of Fish Hatchery Road is open for use as of October 24. This new, four-span arched bridge carries bicyclists and pedestrians over the Beltline and both the north and south frontage roads, providing a safe (and fun!) alternative to the Fish Hatchery Road interchange.
The bridge is also the key segment of the overall Cannonball Path project, which consists of more than four miles of paved shared-use (bicycle and pedestrian) path connecting neighborhoods in Fitchburg and Madison south of the Beltline with central Madison. Currently over 1.6 miles of path is paved, beginning at the Capital City Trail in Fitchburg and extending to the north Beltline frontage road.
Contracts are in place and work has begun on the remaining length, including a new bridge over McKee Road (CTH PD). When completed next year the path will connect to the Military Ridge State Trail, Capital City Trail, Badger Trail and the Southwest path. Plans are being developed for the northward extension to Fish Hatchery Road and ultimately to the Wingra Path.
Many have asked about a ribbon cutting. Nothing was planned for this year because of the uncertainty about the opening date and the lateness of the season. Next year we will be able to hold a big celebration, encompassing the full length of the project and recognizing the communities, governmental agencies, neighborhoods, citizens and builders who have contributed to this great new addition to the metro area’s bike and pedestrian network.
For more pictures,go to http://www.cityofmadison.com/bikemadison/planning/modal/CannonballBridgeOverBeltline.cfm <http://www.cityofmadison.com/bikemadison/planning/modal/CannonballBridgeOverBeltline.cfm>
For more information please contact Tony Fernandez in Engineering at afernandez@cityofmadison.com <mailto:afernandez@cityofmadison.com> .
from City of Madison
18 - Future Cannonball Phases of Construction in the Works
(Attachment: “4 Cannonball map11/22/13.jpg”)
After years in planning and slow progress, Cannonball Path construction is speeding along like a ball shot out of a cannon.
In conversations with Tony Fernandez, City of Madison Engineering, we’ve learned that the trail will soon stretch from its western connection to the Military Ridge Trail to an eastern connection with Fish Hatchery Road, Park Street, and beyond.
Right now, the only paved portions are those labeled Phases 1 and 3 on the map. They extend from below Arbor Hills to the north side of the Beltline near Culvers. Phase 3 was completed by Madison this fall.
But in 2014 Fitchburg will pave more sections. One is the path section below the Arboretum. Another is the portion that runs between Dunn’s Marsh and Belmar Hills. Together they are Phase 2 on the map. In 2014, the path beyond the junction of the Southwest Path/Badger State Trail/Capital City Trail, near the foot of Allied Drive will also be paved This is Phase 4 and will carry the trail to the Military Ridge Trail across County Highway PD where an overpass is partially completed.
Two other articles detail the opening of the Cannonball bridge over the Beltline and the receent placing of half the bike bridge over PD just to the east of PD’s crossing of Highwy 18/151 (Verona Road).
Phase 5 is the section from the Cannonball Beltline bridge northeast to Fish Hatchery Road. On the map it is called “Planned Future Extension to Fish Hatchery Road.” Fernandez explained that that portion is in the 2014 City of Madison budget. This part of the path can’t be on the railroad right-of-way since trains still use the tracks.
Fernandez noted that Madison Engineering has now started preliminary work on Phase 6 that would take the path across Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street to connect to the Wingra Bike Path along Wingra Creek. On the map, Wingra Creek is a hroizontal dark line crosing Park Street just beyond the railroad. (You’ll have to study the map closely to see this.) Currently, Engineering is looking at properties and considering how to piece together the route.
Wow, things have really come far from when this entire route was an active rail line back in the 1960s and there were no bike throughways in the City of Madison and to outlying areas. How lucky we are to live in a time and place where bikeways are a priority. [These last 2 statements are editorial note, of course.]
by Mary Mlullen
ENVIRONMENTAL
19 - Traffic Noise Affects Wildlife
Neighbor Connie Roderick forwarded a reference to a “Science Daily” article that notes that the negative effects of roads on wildlife are largely because of traffic noise.
The study was done by Boise State University. Researchers put speakers that played traffic noise in an area that had no road. They found that the wildlife declined by more than 25% when the noise was on compared to when it wasn’t blasting traffic sounds.
The research was conducted on a “phantom road on a ridge southeast from Lucky Peak, near the Idaho Bird Observatory’s field site.” Control sites showed no decrease.
To read the whole article, go to http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131106113841.htm
by Mary Mullen
20 - Madison Launches Household Battery Recycling
The City of Madison has started a drop off program for the recycling of household batteries. Madison residents can recycling their single use household batteries (A, AA, AAA, C, D, etc) by bringing them to the City’s two full service drop off sites as well as two Metcalf’s Market locations and the Williamson St. Co-op.
“At the urging of Mayor Paul Soglin, the Streets Division has been testing this program for the past year and a half,” Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said. “We are now ready to commit to running the program on a permanent basis.”
Madison residents may recycle their household batteries at the following locations;
City of Madison Drop Off Site, 4602 Sycamore AV
City of Madison Drop Off Site, 1501 W. Badger RD
Metcalf’s Market, 726 N. Midvale BL (Hilldale Mall)
Metcalf’s Market, 7455 Mineral Point RD
Williamson St. Co-op, 1221 Williamson St
“Household battery recycling is expensive because there is not a lot of recyclable material in them,” Dreckmann stated. “It costs $1,300 per ton to get the old batteries recycled compared making them our most expensive program.”
Funds for the program come from savings realized from changes in the electronics recycling program.
The batteries are being handled by Universal Recycling Technologies, the City’s electronics processor.
For more information on the program residents can visit www.cityofmadison.com/streets , email gdreckmann@cityofmadison.com, or call the City Recycling office at 267-2626.
George Dreckman
21 - Clean Lakes, Land, for Our Quality of Life
A Column by Dane County Executive Joe Parisi
In Dane County we’re fortunate to enjoy an incredible quality of life – the county’s abundant lakes and natural spaces are big reasons why.
My 2014 budget makes the largest investment in lakes and lands in county history with bold solutions to reduce the amount of algae-causing phosphorus that enters and fouls our lakes and new partnerships to make our county parks better than ever.
Dane County’s farm families have made important contributions to the ongoing efforts to improve lake health. My budget expands on this strong partnership with additional resources for farmers to help us clean up our lakes.
A new $2 million “Phosphorus Reduction and Remediation Grant Program,” will allow for the acquisition and remediation of lands responsible for the highest percentage of phosphorus run-off in the Yahara System.
I also fund exciting new technology for our second Cow Power manure digester, nearing completion in the Town of Springfield, that will eliminate 100% of the phosphorus in the manure the facility processes.
And to help farmers address manure storage concerns during long, wet, winters and springs my budget also establishes a drop off site near the digester where farmers can safely dispose of their manure.
Your Dane County parks will also be better than ever with new shelters and trails, and additional resources for park upkeep. My budget creates the “Dane County Youth Conservation Corps,” a life-skill development partnership with Operation Fresh Start will put young people to work keeping county parks and their amenities clean, accessible, and family friendly.
I also create a new parks “Partnership and Outreach Coordinator” to build support for the county parks system and enhance the many free amenities we offer residents and visitors.
These investments in lakes and lands in my 2014 budget will help protect the many reasons why more than a half-million people love to call Dane County home.
Office of the County Executive (608) 267-8823 or cell (608) 843-8858
------end of the November 25, 2013 DUNN’S MARSH NEIGHBORHOOD e-NEWS ----
Thanks for reading.
Fleurco
ReplyDelete:-very nice information, we are glad to read this news or post,