June 15 is the deadline to apply for Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund grants, a new program of grants to Berkeley community groups, non-profit organizations and neighborhood associations. The grants (minimum $5,000 per grant, from a pool of $200,000 this year) are to be offered yearly through at least 2020. Projects must address the physical environment of Berkeley neighborhoods or facilities that serve the community, or community support and service projects that enhance the economic, social or cultural well-being of Berkeley residents. They must have as partner an academic or administrative department, or individual faculty and staff members or students.
Everyone is invited to the Berkeley Partners for Parks membership meeting on March 20, from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.
We’ll start with a brief introduction to BPFP, followed by short presentations from several Adopt A Park groups, detailing their work. Our special guest speaker, Tom Guarino, will give a presentation of the activities of Friends of Oakland Parks & Recreation.
At the end, we’ll have time to socialize and meet the Board members of BPFP.
The meeting will be held in the City of Berkeley “Green Room” at the Corporation Yard, Allston Way at Strawberry Creek Park (2 blocks west of Sacramento on Allston).
The City of San Francisco has supplemental funding available (more than $100 million); two very important hearings will take place to decide how the money is allocated.
City Hall in the Board Chambers, Room 250.
Wednesday (3-15 at 5pm)
Wednesday (3-22 at 1pm)
SIGN our PETITION & ATTEND a MEETING
We urge you to attend one of these important meetings and
to get your friends and colleagues to sign the > Pro-PARKS PETITION by March 22nd when NPC will present it to the Board of Supervisors.
Board President Aaron Peskin has proposed that $35 million be spent on Recreation and Parks Capital Projects — allowing all of the Phase 1 projects for the Capital Program to be completed!
> Full Supplemental Spending Proposal
This includes projects for:
• Lincoln Park Master Plan, $600,000
• Lincoln Playground, $1,092,722
• Hamilton Playground, Rec Center and Pool, $14,300,956
• Junipera Serra Playground and Clubhouse, $840,000
• Lake Merced Master Plan, $875,000
• Lake Merced Overlook and Trail, $145,860
• Midtown Terrace Reservoir Top, $1,510,927
• Buena Vista Park Landscape Improvement, $2,536,275
• Sunnyside Conservatory, $3,039,468
• Rolph Playground & Clubhouse, $817,712
• St. Mary’s Playground, $1,680,000
• Kelloch Velasco Park, $1,639,627
• Potrero Hill Playground, $1,382,000
• Visitacion Valley Greenway Tioga Lot, $1,246,463,
• Joseph Lee Recreation Center, $701,000
• Sava Pool, $3,007,672
Our beautiful city needs it’s wonderful city parks to promote good mental and physical health! What a great opportunity to restore these vital neighborhood assets that serve everyone in our city!!
IMPORTANT
Parks lose out to other social services every year — despite their critical value to our health, our environment and our economy.
We would love to turn in thousands of signatures to help our Board to justify the expenditure of some of the supplemental funding on the most important physical assets of our neighborhoods — in the face of many other claims for the funding.
NPC strongly supports the use of extra funding available to the city for one-time expenses only. IMPORTANT: Because the surplus will be divided to fund multiple causes, the measure for parks is NOT in competition with health
and safety initiatives, etc.
Please let us know if you can attend either hearing; NPC staff will be saving a place in the line for those who can come so that ideally you don’t have to wait too long (just look for the NPC sign and “Love your Park” stickers). We expect to be able to comment at this Wednesday’s hearing by 5:30 p.m.
If you use mulch around your house be very careful about buying mulch this year. After the Hurricane in New Orleans many trees were blown over. These trees were then turned into mulch and the state is trying to get rid of tons and tons of this mulch to any stat e or company who will come and haul it away.
So it will be showing up in Home Depot and Lowes at dirt cheap prices with one huge problem; Formosan Termites will be the bonus in many of those bags.
New Orleans is one of the few areas in the country where the Formosan Termites has gotten a strong hold. Many of the trees blown down were already badly infested with those termites, but the much may also contain wood from houses that were infested as well.
Now we may have the worst case of these stores transporting a problem to all parts of the country that have not previously been infested. These termites can eat a house in no time at all and we have no good control against them, so warn your friends to avoid cheap mulch — better to buy locally-composted mulch from a source you know. Don’t be afraid to ask the source.
— Alice
Alice La Pierre
Energy Analyst
City of Berkeley
Energy and Sustainable Development Office
2180 Milvia St., 2nd fl.
Berkeley, CA 94704
