Ice Cream Social this Sunday !!

Ice Cream Social and general membership meeting Aug. 19

elebrate the beginning of the school year at the annual neighborhood ice cream social on Sunday, August 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. at University Farm Park.

Entertainment may include a barbershop quartet, face painting, and crafts for children. UFNA Historian Cele Freeman will bring the UFNA history books for viewing.

Volunteers are needed to help serve ice cream and clean up after the festivities. If you are willing to help, please call Marilyn Augst at 463-9370.

We will hold a short general membership meeting at the Ice Cream Social to discuss possible uses for the future DuBois Street Park and elect officers for the coming year.

According to our association Bylaws, we are to hold officer elections at the last general membership meeting of our fiscal year, which ends August 31.

We will vote for president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Other positions that need to be filled include Garage Sale chair and association Historian.

UFNA treasurer Betty Johnson, who has served as treasurer since September 1996, would like to step down because she has taken on new responsibilities elsewhere.

According to Betty, being treasurer is not very time consuming and is an easy job. The most important duties are processing checks from the dues drive and maintaining bank records.

Thank you, Betty, for five years of service to our neighborhood.

All association members may vote for the officers. You are an association member if you have paid dues during the current fiscal year.

All officers must be members of the association. If you are interested in serving as an officer, please call Marilyn Augst at 463-9370.

Cardboard recycling begins in U. Farm this weekend

A weekend recycling drop-off for cardboard and mixed paper will begin in University Farm the weekend of Aug. 18-19 and continue the third weekend of each month.

The city will bring recycling bins to DuBois Street on Friday evening of the designated weekend, removing them Monday morning.

We can recycle cardboard, cereal boxes, junk mail, and magazines. Please remove the wax paper from cereal boxes.

The location of the recycling bin was discussed at the May 6 general membership meeting. The members present decided to have the bins placed at the DuBois Street location.

We will try this recycling program for six months. If there are any questions or comments, please call Marilyn Augst at 463-9370.

Dates for recycling cardboard are: August 18-19, September 15-16, October 20-21, November 17-18, and December 15-16.

This is in addition to the existing bi-weekly curbside recycling program for metal, glass, and plastic.

Letter from the President

I  hope you and your family can come to the ice cream social at the park. It's a nice event to cap off summer vacations, see friends and neighbors that we haven't seen all summer, and mentally get ready for school and autumn. I really felt sad last summer, when the ice cream social was canceled due to lack of volunteers. Now we have volunteers again, so let's party!

--Marilyn Augst
463-9370
augstmf@gte.net

Please welcome Alka Harriger as our new Web site manager. She replaces Lee Watson. Alka teaches Web development at Purdue.

Items of interest on the site include past newsletters, Bylaws, homes for sale, and remarks from our May 6 guest speakers. Feel email Alka if you have ideas on how to make the new website more useful to UFNA members.

The following are round-ups of recent UFNA meetings…

1. UFNA board meeting (April 24)

The UFNA Board of Directors met April 24 at Ann Broughton's home. Among the issues discussed and matters decided were:

·         Preparation for the May 6 general membership meeting.

·         As directed previously, the president and vice president sent a letter to Purdue University President Martin Jischke asking Purdue Research Foundation to donate several DuBois street lots or reduce their price so a city park can be built on the site.

·         After receiving more information, the Board decided not to purchase directors' liability insurance and not to file for tax-exempt status at this time.  

2. General membership meeting  (May 6):

The UFNA general membership met May 6 at West Lafayette City Hall. The business conducted included revising two UFNA Bylaws and establishing the Committee on DuBois Street Park.

Guest speakers were Mayor Sonya Margerum, Superintendent Stella Batagiannis, Frank Flannelly, and Dave Downey. Additional guests included City Clerk-Treasurer Judy Rhodes; and City Council members Gerry Keen, Arni Cohen, and Jan Mills.

Revised Bylaws

III. Boundaries: University Farm neighborhood is defined as and includes all properties in and residents of the following areas: Benton St., Boone St., Clay Ct., Covington St., Crawford St., Decatur St., DuBois St., Elkhart St., Floyd Ct., Gibson Ct., Hamilton St., Jasper St., Jennings Ct., Jennings St., LaGrange St., Laporte St., Morgan St., Newton Ct., Noble Ct., Pike St., Putnam St., Ripley Ct., Shelby Ct., Spencer Ct., Steuben Ct., Sullivan St., Vigo Ct., Warrick St., and Whitley Ct.

V. Membership: A. Membership is open to residents and shall be granted to any resident who has paid dues for the current fiscal year.

Committee on DuBois Street Park

The University Farm Neighborhood Association hereby establishes the Committee on DuBois Street Park for the purpose of facilitating the land transfer and construction of a city park in the designated six lots on DuBois Street. This Committee shall be empowered to take action to accomplish this goal upon obtaining the approval of the UFNA Officers (president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer). This Committee may also report recommendations to the UFNA Executive Board. This Committee shall dissolve upon a formal vote by the Executive Board after a city park is in place on DuBois Street.

Joe Anderson was appointed chair of the committee.

Highlights of comments by guests:

Frank Flannelly, chairman or West Lafayette Recycling Committee, and Dave Downey, West Lafayette street commissioner

Recycling is not a money-making proposition for the city. About 40 percent of Barberry Heights residents use the monthly recycling bins in that neighborhood, and there have been no complaints about the program. The Recycling Committee seeks to expand recycling in the City, which is why they approached University Farm about recycling in our neighborhood.

Mayor Sonya Margerum:

The mayor spoke about growth in West Lafayette, including the Amberley development now under construction to the west of University Farm. It is moderate-cost housing. The city has run sewers to the development. Amberley will be connected with trails and a pond near Cumberland Woods. The Kalberer Road development wants to be annexed to the City, but they cannot annex to our school system because school boundaries are set by the State.

Dr. Stella Batagiannis, superintendent of schools, West Lafayette Community School Corporation:

Dr. Batagiannis spoke about school finances. The School Corporation had a deficit, which was reduced and built into a half-million-dollar cash balance, but it is operating on a tight budget.

Our community considers education a high priority, she said. The Sept/Oct 2000 issue of Offspring magazine lists the top schools in the country, including WLSC.

A more detailed account of the speakers' comments can be found at speakers.html.

Thank you to all our speakers and guests for coming to the May 6 meeting.

3. Board meeting, (Aug. 6)

·         Planned the Ice Cream Social.

·         Discussed directories.

·         Discussed traffic concerns and moved that the board send a letter to the parents of UFNA teenager who is known to speed in the neighborhood; a copy will be sent to the West Lafayette Police Department.

·         Motion passed to allow West Lafayette Public Library and the city to link their Web sites to ours.

"We are actively working on it," West Lafayette Mayor Sonya Margerum told me recently when speaking about the proposed DuBois Street Park. Mayor Margerum and city officials are in the process of discussing the park with Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) officials. PRF, which owns the six lots proposed for the park, wants to resolve this fairly quickly. We are hoping to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony this fall.

University Farm residents need to start thinking about what we want at the proposed park. What should be there now? What should be there in five or 10 years? Among the ideas I've heard are a playground, a gazebo, volleyball courts, a play sand area, trees and bushes, a walking path, benches, and a swimming pool.

Mayor Margerum said there is enough money in the city budget next year to prepare the site (mowing, etc.), but no money for play equipment. So who pays? Do we lobby the city for the next three years for money, or do we raise our own funds now?

UFNA members established the Committee on DuBois Street Park at our general membership meeting on May 6. DuBois Street resident Joe Anderson is chair of the committee. Let's start talking about what we want at the park during the ice cream social. 

Our dues -- inexpensive compared to other neighborhood associations -- help maintain our friendly, unique neighborhood. We can all agree that living in a clean, safe, well-maintained neighborhood keeps our property values up and our standard of living at a comfortable level. So please welcome your street coordinator with cash or check in hand.

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