September 2016 | SNA Newsletter

September is a great month to renew your membership!

Help keep us going with your contribution!  Memberships are $15 individual, $25 family, $5 senior, and $40 business.

JOIN or RENEW TODAY!

SNA PARKing Day Street Garden

Friday September 16th
12- 8 – west side of Carroll Street between Knapp and Mulberry

Co-conspirators sought this week.  Let’s put our ideas together and mock up a garden using plants and ingenuity.  Help inspire people to consider seasonal street gardening.   This idea will not be for everyone or every street, and it may positively aggravate some drivers, but you are welcome to participate in the experiment, talk to the neighbors and passers by, and help us come to a new perspective on whether this method of adding green and bringing neighbors together has possibilities for Springdale.  springdalerocks@earthlink.net or see Chris Reid after the meeting.

HEARINGS OF INTEREST

Monday September 12, 2016
Zoning Board Hearing  – Zoning Change to VCD
45 Church St, Glenbrook (applying to expand VCD boundary; could add 42 apts)
7:00pm – 4th floor of the Government Center (888 Washington Blvd)

Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Hearing on Metro North train ticket price increase
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
University of Connecticut Stamford Campus Auditorium
One University Place (enter on Broad Street; parking garage -1194 Washington Blvd)

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Hearing continued – Merritt Apartment Complex New Canaan (time not known)
Proposed 4-story complex near train station of 123 units/net increase of 85 units (tearing down old apts/ rebuilding more densely), including 2 and 3 BR apts that the builders insist will attract senior citizens.  This complex could impact already scarce seats on the train if the people who rent turn out to be interested in commuting to NY.

BICYCLING AND WALKING PLAN OPEN HOUSE
An open house for the Stamford bicycle/pedestrian plan is happening this Saturday, Sept. 17.  Where?   Downtown Farmers Market at Bedford @ Forest Sts, 11 am – 2 pm.  Come have a look and add your two cents worth.

SNA Mean Green & Clean Team and SNA Friends of Sleepy Hollow Park have dedicated over 125 hours (and counting) this summer making Springdale beautiful, and had a good time doing it.  You can see the results of their dedicated work on the Hope Street/Camp AV tree grates, streetscapes and gardens, and the Sleepy Hollow Park’s Lawton Avenue side – not to mention the Springdale School vegetable beds, now wall to wall soil instead of wall to wall weeds.  Nice work!

Hope Street Traffic Improvements Update – Stamford Traffic and Transportation Bureau Chief Josh Benson informs us that the city has identified 5 consulting firms to consider for the citywide signal optimization project and they are about to interview three firms next week. Josh says that the Hope Street corridor has been identified as a priority and they hope to start data collection on Hope Street this fall and install the optimization solutions next spring.

Crosswalk Help:  Rep. Jon Hoch also advises that per the city traffic engineer, two “stanchions”  (the upright yield signposts) will be installed in two Springdale crosswalks, one at the Knapp/Greenway “Z” shaped crosswalk and one farther north at Minivale/Hope to remind cars to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

LAST CALL – OUR NEXT TRAFFIC AND PARKING CONDITION UPDATE

A newly updated Springdale Traffic and Parking Condition spreadsheet will be sent to the Traffic Department in early October, so if you have any further traffic or parking conditions you believe should be added, please send them to springdalerocks@earthlink.net (traffic correspondence only unless otherwise noted).    We will make sure they are fully informed going into their documentation phase.  Also send to the Citizens Service Center to be logged into the traffic department system.

1032 Hope apartment building
The building is renting now, since it has –as of late August- received a partial Certificate of Occupancy, with 30 units held back until repairs to the retaining wall and storm sewer system are made.  The city is on top of it, says Rep. Mary Fedeli.

Gingerbitz of New Canaan opens this fall at 1032 Hope.
The shop’s hours in NC are Tuesday – Saturday from 9 am – 5 pm. Similar hours on Hope Street would prevent additional congestion from parallel-parking coffee drinkers seeking their Morning Joe.  Past reviews show that Gingerbitz sells Stumptown coffee, bought in the fall of 2015 by Peet’s Coffee (for all you heavy duty coffee aficionados!)

BIKE AND WALKING MAP:  Identify Springdale street and sidewalk conditions – use the map to let the city know

Use this link (the map works best in Firefox and Internet Explorer)

Five test projects will be chosen citywide from the survey results – definitely worth your time to add info to the map! These could lead to permanent improvements.  Springdale has to play to win, so our input is very important but I don’t think it has been added (at least my data collection has not been added — I have an Apple computer and use Safari, so seems like I can’t work the map without changing to the Firefox browser – sigh, maybe I will go to our great library and use their computer!)

HIGH RIDGE BIKE ROUTE
Bike lanes are being proposed on a section of High Ridge RD running from the Merritt Parkway to Bull’s Head, advocated at least since 2014. Emily Provonsha of the Transportation Department says the city is applying for an encroachment permit, to gain permission for the use of the Right of Way for bike lanes.  The CONNDOT recommendation is  for current lanes to be narrowed from 12 to 11 feet (the minimum width for Stamford fire trucks) and bike lanes to be created partly by restriping and partly by utilizing the right of way.  I am not clear if a feasibility study has been done or will be conducted once the permit is obtained. Emily says this section of road was selected from a 400-page study that was started several years before the Hope Street sharrows came to Springdale.  No separation other than stripes from traffic.

Bicyclists:  What is your assessment of this route?  For what will you use it?

UPDATES

Sleepy Hollow Park Work Update:  After 29 people large and small (some even tiny!) donated more than 50 hours of volunteer time clean up the Lawton Av side of the park on August 6, the city’s Ron Markey sent the tree crew to prune large dead branches out of five trees and helped clear thick bittersweet vines from a long-unused lamppost. The lamppost is on the electrician’s September schedule, so we may have evening lamplight again soon!  The Land Use Department is donating an 8-foot picnic bench as a trial in the park (anytime a bench is near a pond, exciting things can happen…)  We have heard that people are now getting out of their cars and bringing lawn chairs at lunchtime!

SNA Friends of Sleepy Hollow team will continue work every Saturday morning in September along the waterside lawn edge to remove invasive porcelain berry vine before the berries ripen and to cut thick, ropey vines of bittersweet (done most recently  from the double file Viburnum near the storm water grate).  You will see the vines dying –in this case, it’s a good thing!  The city offers a 30-yard dumpster to clear dumped brush from just inside the woods entrance.  Want to help load it?

Hope Street Update:  The SNA Mean Clean and Green Team ventured out in the cool of early morning on many a hot summer day to beat the heat and clean the streets.   Crabgrass was pulled out of grates, and forgotten plates, wrappers, cigarette butts and broken bottles were collected and bagged.  Nearby plantings along Hope and Camp were given help where we had time.  We cut back poison ivy, bittersweet and porcelain berry growing in the shrubs under the Veteran’s Park memorial plaque, lightly trimmed the hedge growing against the side of Amore, and further along, weeded the water garden’s land background and cut some dead branches out of shrubs along Hope Street near Sophia, weeded some retailer planted lower pots and even waded into a daunting crop of invasives choking the garden planted on a wall along Camp Avenue.  Train station gardens were weeded and cleaned, too and the whiskey barrel planter by the diner was replanted.  Springdale in early morning is an interesting place!

Come join us – thousands of people every day see the results of the work the Mean Clean and Green Team does.  It’s great to drive down Hope Street and feel proud of the results.   (And all the work makes the new streetlights look even better – check them out in the lower part of the business district.)

Community Grants – The city is making available $75,000 as a series of grants to neighborhood associations who apply for grant funding.  For what project or improvement would you like to see SNA seek funding?  Yes, we have our own laundry list, but we welcome your suggestions, too!

VOLUNTEER WITH SNA!

In our work on Hope Street, the train station, Sleepy Hollow Park, and Springdale School, we welcome your participation.  It is a joyful experience to give back to Springdale in the company of a dedicated team.

Have fun and meet new people – join in!

SNA Mean Clean and Green Team – Come garden with us!  Flexible times, varying projects, Hope Street commercial district a constant focus.  The more of us there are, the more we can do.  Thousands of people every day see the work you do.  Good company, and gratifying results.  Bring your energy and ideas (plus gloves and pruners) and jump in!

Contact springdaleassn@gmail.com and ask about the Clean and Green Team activities coming up.

Sleepy Hollow Park Invasives Removal – Saturday mornings in September – contact Michelle Passaro (michpass@optonline.net) for the schedule and hand tools you need. We are cutting down selected unwanted invasives, but recognizing and leaving wetland natives in place.  Each few hours of progress reveals more of the view of the wetlands behind the wall of invasives.   Come help  – the results are like magic!

Business Directory Ideas and Input Wanted – we are developing a format for our business directory.

We welcome your feedback:

• Customers – What info can’t you find elsewhere that we can include?
• Businesses – How can we help you find the local services, supplies and business partnerships you seek?
• Retailers – How can the SNA uniquely help Springdale customers find and get to know your business?

Want to help us make the best hyper local directory ever?  Contact us at  springdaleassn@gmail.com .

SPRINGDALE SCHOOL VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES:  CALLING ALL VEGETABLE GARDENERS, INVENTORS, BOOK READERS, CARD PLAYERS, AND SCRABBLE FANS.

SNA is working with our wonderful neighborhood Springdale School to expand the community/school connection beyond parents and teachers out into the community, and there is a role for you!  Principal Gloria Manna and Vice Principal Laura Lynam have identified some unusually intriguing community volunteer opportunities for people whose kids are grown or who have no kids – just like them. Contact springdaleassn@gmail.com for more info on joining in the fun.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday, September 16, 2016
PARKing Day –  trial street garden 12 – 8 pm
Carroll St btwn Knapp/Mulberry

Thursday, September 29, 2016
Coffee with Cops 6 – 7:30 pm
Springdale Shopping Center – CVS sidewalk area

Thursday, October 11, 2016
SNA BOARD MEETING, speaker Thomas Madden, Director of Economic Development, City of Stamford.
Business owners, be sure to attend!
6:45 pm Weed Memorial & Hollander Branch Library

Saturday, October 22, 2016
Annual Fall Cleanup 9 – 11 AM
Hope Street – Meet at park beside Amore Cucina (Hope St near Largo Dr)

Thursday, November 10, 2016
SNA Board Meeting (topic to be announced)
6:45 pm Weed Memorial & Hollander Branch Library

Thursday, November 17, 2016
 Springdale Meeting with the Mayor
(time/place TBA)

Sunday, December 2, 2016
Annual Tree Lighting
Hope Street