Our first meeting of 2010 will be this Saturday January 9th. Wow, seems just like yesterday we were beginning this century and now we are on to the second decade. Those of us who live in Brooklyn Centre are not letting our feet get frozen to the ground because we already have attended the mandatory meeting for our Reimagining Cleveland grant. Over 100 proposals were submitted and we were fortunate to receive one of 58 grants. There are two categories of grants: greening and urban agriculture. Our native plant nursery and teaching garden is a greening grant. There is at least one other greening grant in Ward 14 at 48th and Clark. We met the lady responsible for that application and we are going to share information so that we will learn from each other and make our projects the best they can be. One of the things she offered to share was the pollution calculator on their website. They have a tool that will take the dimensions, use the plants and trees on the lot and calculate how much pollution is being neutralized by your garden.
In the other category, Brooklyn Centre Community Association received a grant for a community orchard. Johanna and Darren Hamm spearheaded that proposal. As we receive more information on the orchard project as well as others we will keep you posted.
Join us this Saturday January ninth at The Cleveland Public Library-Brooklyn Branch at 3706 Pearl Road from 2:30 to 4:30 pm when we will show preliminary sketches of the nursery and teaching garden, plan a maintenance and work schedule for the site and go over ou budget for the project.
ParkWorks will be acting as our fiscal agent for the project and will be handling the accounting and bookkeeping duties since they are proficient in working with federal funding and reporting requirements. $450,000 for these grants come from Federal Stabilization funds and an additional $86,000 is being contributed by Neighborhood Progress Inc. ParkWorks brings over 30 years of experience as a leader in community designed green space development, park rehabilitation, and recreational programming. They are looking forward to working with us to establish best practices for the use and maintenance of native plant gardening.
Community orchards, native plant nurseries and gardens, kids nature programs at Brooklyn Memorial, butterfly gardens, garden tours, and more. It looks like an exciting 2010 in Brooklyn Centre.
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