Beloit NPA Neighbor’s Directory

Just finished updating with nine new members. We’re now up to forty-four households in the historic distric(s) and surrounding ‘vintage’ neighborhood. Only those in the directory have access to this shared resource. If interested in participating just let us know.

[UPDATE]  For those of you already in the directory I’m trying to gather up an individual, couple or family pics to be added to the doc. If you’ve access you can do this yourself. Or if easier, just email me a pic and I’ll get it up for you. RickM

webmaster (at) beloitnpa (dot) org

Meeting Minutes 1/26/09

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Wednesday afternoon knitting

Found out this evening that there have been at least fourteen different women who’ve attended the Wednesday afternoon knitting gathering begun just a few weeks back. Just yesterday there were eleven all cozied up in the back room at Pleasant Street knitting and yakking up a storm. Would seem Deb’s hit onto something. Mark your calendar for Wednesdays 4:00 and come on out.

Demolition Sales

Have you ever been to a demolition sale?

If in the final analysis the building has to go, there are often materials that are either not cost effective to produce any more, too hard to source or simply are no longer available at any price that are available for sale. That and you can often obtain these items very reasonably… that is if you’re willing to do the work to remove and transport. I’ve been to a bunch. They can be fun, they can be a great resource, it reduces what goes to the landfill and it’s very ‘green’. Often times in and around historic districts salvage rights are granted or obtained by the community to save what can be reused.

Just saw this. Cook County Demolition Sales is having one Jan 24th/25th in Chicago. Some interesting things. Thanks JoyB for the tip.

Next meeting agenda: Mon. 1/26

At our last meeting there were a few things we were asking folks to consider in advance of today’s meeting.

• Beloit NPA Bylaws
• Committee participation
• Reporting volunteer

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School Board Nominees – Invite to Speak?

Regardless of if you/we have children in the local schools, the quality of education serving our neighborhood is of fundamental import. It impacts directly the viability or our neighborhood. We’ve not just one but two neighbors generous enough to be willing to volunteer their time and talents for the benefit of everyone. What would folks think of asking all candidates to meet with us. Think about it.

The election is not until April so we’ve some time but sooner/better I’d think. As you likely know there are three seats open and five candidates. I’ll add this to our next meeting’s agenda.

Tree Trimming

All,
I just saw that the city or utility co. is beginning to cut trees around power lines along Milwaukee, south of White. You’ve likely seen how poorly (IMO) they managed this near East Ridge & the cemetery. Who do we contact? Is this of interest or concern to others or am I being alarmist? I wouldn’t want what they did on Milw a couple months ago on our street.

[UPDATE] Wow! I just got a call from BruceS from the city public works. How’s that for being responsive? They’re aware.  They were already on it. They appreciate where we’re coming from with this.

I’d posted this this morning and sent word out. I’d simply hoped to find out who to contact and initiate an exchange. Evidently some unknown friend among our group was kind enough to contact the city for us. Who ever you are… thank you!

So later the same day I got a call.  Wow again!

In the private sector the goal is to exceed customer expectations. That was the case here and a pleasant surprise.

Hands-on Classes in Historic Preservation Trades

At the Belvedere School (Training Artisans in the Historic Preservation Trades) in Hannibal MO.

• Wood Floor Repair & Restoration
• Making Wooden Storm Windows
• Window Restoration College
• Making Architectural Woodwork
• Replicating Missing Historic Porches

The classes are -very- reasonably priced and expertly taught.

The Belvedere School for Historic Preservation – Course Schedule.

New jobs & business technology requirements also require new construction… NOT

Just saw this. IBM is opening up a ‘new’ facility in downtown Dubuque Iowa. With it is planned over 1,000 IT jobs. It’s a great story and a huge win for this city. What I found interesting is that this technology dependent company is moving into an ‘old’ building. A building that will certainly need to meet the technology, OSHA and other infrastructure demands of this tech company.

The term is ‘adaptive reuse’. Its when old buildings are renovated for contemporary uses often very different then their original purpose. It’s often too easy simply to declare that an old building is unsuitable for the fiercely competitive demands of contemporary business and industry. Adaptive reuse is cast as pollyanna or for luddites. The expedient solution lobbied for is often demolition or new development over existing open land requiring additional investment in the expansion of infrastructure.

In the case of Dubuque it would seem part of the draw for IBM was proximity to the city’s colleges/universities along with proximity to other city services, retail, restaurants, lodging, arts & entertainment. We’ve some wonderful examples of adaptive reuse here in Beloit most notably ABC Supply and the Visit Beloit building but also the Arts Incubator, the library and others. It would seem there’s been a lot of demolition in Beloit’s past. I look forward to more adaptive reuse in Beloit’s future.

Thanks to Dr.Bob for pointing out the IBM/Dubuque story to me.

I hate snow shoveling – a better idea from PaulD

Thanks to PaulD a neighbor in the association for telling us about “sleigh shovels”. I’d never heard of such a thing. He then took it a step further finding that if six of us went in together for this quantity we could get a volume discount. One thing leading to another and I’m now the proud owner of a Sleigh Shovel.

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