Kinsey Park clean up and pier

Just a quick report here. There were about a dozen residents attending the District 7 meeting on April 9. Alderwomen Renee' Lowerr and Lisa Mellone did a great job letting us know what was coming up in our neck of the woods.

There is a new dentist building on Fairlane and Greenfield, and the remaining portion of Brookfield Marketplace shopping center on Greenfield will be completed. One of the buildings will be a bank on the far east side.

A few residents expressed concern over patrons of these new businesses using our residential streets for a quick cut through. Lisa explained about a project that utilizes traffic calming measures to cut down on residential speeders cutting through on our streets. Since I live on one such street, I will be interested in this project.

I asked Lisa if she had heard anything about the fishing pier that was supposed to have gone in at Kinsey Park pond a year ago. Lisa did not know anything about it, but she just emailed me recently that it is indeed still going to happen.

"Per Bill Kolstad (Park & Rec.) an agreement was completed and signed with a contractor to build and install a fishing pier at Kinsey Park Pond. It would be located near the shelter. I will happen sometime this summer, but no firm start date has been established. It will have a protective rail and only catch and release would be allowed."

So the bad new is, no fish dinners courtesy of Kinsey Park Pond, but the good news is kids will have a great place to fish from!

Thanks Lisa, for following up on that.

And, speaking of the park and pond, thank you Boy Scout Troop 41 for spending a good part of the afternoon today cleaning up the park and pond. I saw the boys walking back from the park today with their garbage bags full of trash while I was out walking my dog.

The wildflowers are starting to come up in the park. Last Wednesday, I spotted a Dogtooth Violet and about 10 Red Trilliums. Unfortunately, I also spotted some Garlic Mustard. There are a number of neighbors near the park who pull the garlic mustard as they walk through the park. Nothing formal, just a, Oh, there's some, I'll nab it effort.

I do hope you are planning to help at the 4th Annual Mary Knoll Weed Out on Saturday, May 3, 9-noon. It is a good chance to do something productive and meet and chat with some neighbors at the same time.

Weed control links: Garlic Mustard and garlic mustard's pretty cousin, Dame's Rocket. (It can take over native areas too.) Garlic mustard should be thrown in the trash and labeled Garlic Mustard: Do not compost.

Links: Betterbrookfield, Vicki Mckenna
Blogs: Practically Speaking, Fairlyconservative