Northwest Neighbors

55th St NW & W.Circle Dr NW intersection:
Proposal to move the intersection from 55th St NW to Members Parkway and 41st St NW. The city will be taking all comments into consideration during their decision making process, so please view the proposal and submit comments at the website: http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/publicworks/hottopics/index.asp. Because of budget constraints the actual move will not take place until 2009.

65th St NW & Hwy 52N interchange:
The traffic study for this interchange has been put on hold and currently there is no progress on this. For 65th Street NW itself, the street west of Hwy 52 is planned to be upgraded in the next couple of the years to handle additional traffic.

Villa Rd NW:
Neighbors have expressed concerns with the increase of traffic, water flowage problems, the speed of the vehicles and safety of pedestrians along this narrow road. A proposal to the neighbors from the city and a meeting with public works was held with the neighbors with proposals of curb, gutter and sidewalks, but cost to do so is too high due to size of properties. Also proposed was a one-way loop around Chateau Road and Villa Rd, but was rejected by the neighbors.

Our city council member Bruce Snyder has been pushing to have a solution for this problem. The most feasible possibility at this time are speed tables. In the mean time if you drive this route, please be aware of these issues - slow down and yield to pedestrians.

Rochester Public School:
A new elementary school north of 55th St and west of 50th Ave is being planned - contact the Rochester Public School if interested in being involved in the development of this.

For questions please contact rochesternwneighbors@yahoo.com

-Bonnie Lodermeier
Northwest Neighbors

Welcome!

Police Officer Stop By

Treasures Report

Communications

• Web Page - www.northwestneighbors.net – Additions. Content suggestions?
• Newsletter – January mailing to all households. Outstanding local business support. Possible expand to bi-annual or quarterly.

Halloween Festival Summary

Community Education – Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

• CPTED is a crime control philosophy that attempts to apply physical design, citizen participations, and law enforcement strategies in a comprehensive way to protect neighborhood.
• 6 class sessions in May
• Darrel Hilderbrant Crime Pervention and CPTED Specialist

2007 Events

• Garage Sale – May 18 & 19
• National Night Out – August 7
• Halloween Festival – October 25

Volunteer/Membership Signup

Secretary – Help needed!

Traffic & Development Issues

• 55th St NW & W. Circle Dr. NW Intersection Move
• 65th St. NW & Hwy 52 N Interchange
• Villa Rd. NW
• Rochester Public School

Neighborhood Issues/Concerns

-Bonnie Lodermeier
Northwest Neighbors

Our 1st Annual Halloween Festival was a “spooky” good time for the volunteers, for the kids, and for the families. We hope to make it bigger and better in 2006. Check out the pictures in our new picture gallery: 2006 Halloween Festival Album

National Night Out Ice Cream Social
The National Night Out Ice Cream Social is our biggest events of the year and is held the first Tuesday of August to help promote safety in our neighborhoods. Volunteers are needed for a number of tasks including getting donation, communications, coordinating entertainment, organizing kids’ games, making posters, coordinating with the Park & Rec, and planning the ice cream. You can help with just one task or multiple tasks depending on your time availability.
Time Commitment - Donation Solicitations: 3 hours in February and 5-7 hours in July. Food Planning: 4 hours in July. Organizing Activities/Games: 7-10 hours in July.

Even more volunteers are needed the night of the event to help set up, run the games, serve the ice cream, make ice cream runs, direct the activities, and clean up. Each year we try to expand the fun activities and the more volunteers we have that night the better the event is!
Time Commitment - 4 hours the night of the event.

Garage Sale
Calling all Garage Sale Hunters! Every Spring the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Garage attracts people from all over Rochester and surrounding areas into the neighborhood for bargains. Rose and Greg Madder chair the committee and they always welcome help to advertise and organize the event.
Time Commitment- 1-3 hours a week the first three weeks in May and to be available one of the days of the garage sale.

Halloween Festival
Do you have a little bit of kid in you? Do you love Halloween? Our annual Halloween Festival for all of our neighborhood kids (and kids at heart) is held in late October and includes games, snacks, and a costume parade. Volunteers are needed to help plan the games, snacks, and location. We also need help at the festival to decorate, run the kids games, hand out prizes, serve snacks, and clean up.
Time Commitment - Planning: 1-3 hours per week from mid September to early October. Festival Help: 2 hours for the event.

Other Social Events
We are taking ideas for new social events, so if you have an idea let us know. Also be prepared to help plan and organize it!

Traffic and Development Committee
Do you like to know what the city is planning for our area? Are you concerned with traffic on our streets? This committee works closely with city officials on the traffic and construction development in the area. They also attend City Council meetings and Planning & Zoning meetings when necessary. If a traffic problem arises, the committee will work with that group of home owners to follow Rochester’s process for resolving the issue.
Time Commitment- Varies depending on current issues. Usually 2-4 hours per month.

Neighborhood Cleanup
The association would like to get enough volunteers for two neighborhood clean up days each year. One day in the Spring and one in the Fall, volunteers would walk the area to pick up trash.
Time Commitment - 4 hours twice in the year.

Communications
One of our greatest challenges is to get the word out to our neighbors about issues and events.

Web Site: Help is needed to maintain and grow the web site as this is a great media for communications. The information on it needs to be kept up to date with the latest happenings, upcoming events, and information on better living.
Time Commitment - 2-4 hours per month.

Signs: Signs set out around the neighborhood communicate upcoming meetings and social events. The association has 30 signs that need to be put out for each quarterly meeting which is the last Thursday in January, April, July, and October. Help is also needed to create and distribute signs for other events such as the Garage Sale, National Night Out and the Halloween Festival.
Time Commitment – 2 hours for each meeting and 3 hour for each social event.

Newsletter: To reach all neighbors we mail a newsletter advertising our events and meetings for the coming year. We are looking to expand the frequency and content of the newsletter if possible.
Time Commitment - 2-4 hours the first two weeks of January. If the newsletter grows then more time may be needed to send out a newsletter each quarter.

If you want to get involved in any of these opportunities or have further questions please contact Bonnie Lodermeier at (507)280-0562 or rochesternwneighbors@yahoo.com