Notes - Landscape & Grounds Committee

The Landscape & Grounds Committee normally meets on the second Monday of every three months. However, there has been much activity recently and planning has necessitated meeting on a much more frequent basis. The last meeting was on January 9th. The following items were of interest:

• The maintenance contract for the St. Alban’s Square fountain and the Clemens Square water feature has been approved and was nearly half the bid received by another company at the time of budget preparation. Norwood Creek Water Gardens of Statesville will be providing the weekly service. Large goldfish and water plants will be added back to the Clemens Square pond. Doug Boone, Neighborhood Founder, still plans to complete placement of available rock at this pond to make the area more robust.
• A monthly contest for “Yard of the Month” for single-family homes is planned to begin in April, 2006. The contest will run from April until November and will culminate in an outdoor Christmas decoration contest for the neighborhood in December. Further details will be included in the March newsletter. If you have suggestions regarding this idea, please call Shirley Fischer at 704.894.0222.
• A number of pine trees behind St. Alban’s Church (along Marler S. Tuttle, Sr. and Miriam G. Tuttle Byways behind Twain Avenue and South Faulkner Way) were heavily damaged and uprooted during the recent ice storm. As this is church property, discussion is underway to determine how best to restore this area. The topic will be discussed in the February Council of Stewards meeting.

The next meeting of this committee is scheduled for Wednesday, February 8. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact Donna Howell, Chairperson for the committee, or Dave Smith, Council of Stewards representative on the committee.

Our Towns Habitat for Humanity Homestay Program

Have you got a spare room and bath for several weekends a year? Are you looking for a way to meet new people and make lasting friendships? Are you looking for a good way to make a difference in the community? The Homestay Program may be what you are looking for!

The Homestay Program links families in the Davidson area as host families for Davidson College families when they come to Davidson for freshman orientation, family weekend, and/or graduation weekend. Instead of paying for a hotel room, Davidson College parents make a donation to Our Towns Habitat of $50 a night per room. Habitat then makes arrangements for the visiting family to stay with a local family during that special school weekend. People can feel much more at home than they would at a hotel, while having the satisfaction of knowing that money that would have gone to a hotel will now serve a worthy community cause. Often families keep in touch with their host families and stay with the same family through their child's four years of college. It is a wonderful program of hospitality and service - just what the Town of Davidson and Habitat for Humanity are all about.

Mike and Nancy Kota (112 Caldwell Avenue) are one of the host families in the Homestay Program. Mike makes an interesting comment, “We were guests before we were hosts!” As out-of-town parents when their daughter attended Davidson College four or five years ago, they took advantage of the program. Now that they have moved to Davidson and New Neighborhood they are paying back their very positive experience by participating as a host family.
Habitat makes all the arrangements, advertises the program to the Davidson College parents, and recruits host families - many of whom have been hosting for several years and love doing it. The program is in effect for the three main parent’s events of the school year: Orientation (mid-August); Family Weekend (October); and Commencement (May 13-14 for 2006). As a host family, you do not have to commit to all three times each year. One or two weekends would be appreciated.

Host families are needed for Commencement weekend this year and now is also a good time to volunteer for the 2006-2007 school year. If you are interested in further information about this program or if you wish to participate as a host family please contact:

Christine Boone
cboone@ourtownshabitat.org
704-896-8957 ext. 1105
e-mail is the preferred method of contact

This is a wonderful way to give to the community and
to develop new and lasting friendships while doing so!
And remember: By sharing your home, Our Towns Habitat
will be able to continue building new homes.

Community Garden - Update

Initial interest in having a Community Garden has been encouraging. The addition of several more neighbors would create a good start. Plans are to locate the first garden on the north side of O. Henry Avenue on the natural gas pipe line right-of-way along the path leading to the dog park and nature trail through the woods.

Rodney Graham (510 North Faulkner Way) has agreed to chair the Community Garden Committee and Dave Stout and Shannon McLean (328 O. Henry Avenue) have agreed to help with registration and organization. The committee plans to meet in February with people interested in having a garden plot(s) in order to organize a steering committee and determine the next steps.

If you are interested, please call Rodney at 704.896.8872 or Dave at 704.895.9117. The time to plan is now in order to create garden plots by this summer.

Newsletter Delivery Volunteers

Many thanks are due our newsletter delivery volunteers each month. The January volunteers included Barbara & Tom Doster, Tom Fischer, John Hart, Sherman Kahn, Norm Reid, Norman Richards, Dave Smith, John & Marcia Williamson, and Chuck Womack. A special thank you goes to our newest delivery volunteer, Adria Appleby.

If you wish to volunteer, please call Dave Smith at 704.897.1472 (e-mail at davidbsmith@bellsouth.net).

SPINN Volunteers Needed

For the last three years, the neighborhood has celebrated SPINN (Spring Party in New Neighborhood) in Faulkner Square. This is an annually budgeted event supported by the Neighborhood Association. However, it does require organization and communication in order to occur and be a success. The event has been traditionally held sometime in May.

Co-organizers for this event in 2006 will be Brian & Teresa Furlong (O. Henry Avenue) and Tom & Leigh Ann Hamic (Wolfe Street). With ice storms and cold weather, it may not seem appropriate to plan for SPINN now, but our past experience has shown that now is the time to begin thinking about this celebration. Lots of notes are available from past years to jump-start the planning process. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the Furlongs at 704.896.6059 or the Hamics at 704.895.7721.

This is a great way to celebrate New Neighborhood each spring and to meet both old and new neighbors. We are expecting the biggest party yet in 2006!