Monday 24 March 2008

Greensboro Bicentennial Torch Relay--This Tuesday 4-7 p.m.

The Torch Relay is one of several Greensboro Bicentennial Kick-Off events. The relay will touch our neighborhood in several spots, Tuesday, March 25, 4-7. Several Aycock neighbors will be running.

Relay begins at 4 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium at corner of Yanceyville and Lindsay streets. From there, the relay will wind through NC A& T and surrounding neighborhoods, before heading over to other northeast Greensboro neighborhoods, including the Cone Mills neighborhood.

Eventually, late in the route, the relay will head south on Summit, meeting up with Bessemer, where runners will head west, eventually taking a left (heading south) on Cypress Street (at Aycock Middle School). The relay will run the length of Cypress, crossing Yanceyville, dead-ending at Percy, cutting through Brandon to continue north on Chestnut to Hendrix, back to Yanceyville, back to Bessemer, crossing over the bridge, across Church and into Fisher Park!

I'm out of breath just mapping it!

Speaking of maps:


Be prepared to cheer on the relayers--or at least to slow down during your drive home Tuesday.

Friday 1 February 2008

Mayoral Town Hall - Monday, February 11

The Greensboro Neighborhood Congress (GNC) will sponsor the first Town Hall for Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson.

All residents are welcome to attend.

Time : Monday, February 11, 6:30 - 9:00pm

Location: Fellowship Hall at the corner of Friendly Avenue and Commerce Place in the West Market Street United Methodist Church building.

Mayor Johnson wants to hear from the residents of Greensboro and answer as many questions as she can during this meeting. Therefore, she will keep her prepared comments to a minimum and take written questions that are presented prior to the meeting and during the meeting. Marsh Prause, the Chair of the GNC Bylaws and Issues Committee will categorize and present the questions to Mayor Johnson.

It will be most helpful if as many questions as possible are received prior to the meeting. If you will send your questions to Donna Newton as soon as possible, we can begin organizing them now. Please also solicit questions from your neighborhoods. They can submit them directly to me at bdnewt@yahoo.com. Please enter Town Hall Questions in the subject line.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Leaf Collection Begins Nov. 5

Speaking of trees, the city has announced its fall leaf pick-up schedule:
Leaves that are curbside by Nov. 5 will be picked up by Dec. 8.
Leaves that are curbside by Dec. 10 will be picked up by Jan. 18.

Simply rake your leaves to the edge of the yard, but be sure to keep them behind the curb--leaf and other yard waste that is raked into the street goes down the storm drains and potentially pollutes area lakes and streams.

A couple of other ways you can get rid of fall leaves:
Bag them in clear plastic bags and put them out with the rest of the trash on Thursdays.
Or, suggests the Guilford County Cooperative Extension Service, recycle the leaves: shred and use them as mulch or compost them for use as fertilizer (this is what the city does with the leaves it collects!).

Neighborwoods Tree Planting Postponed until 2008

The scheduled planting of 150 new trees throughout the neighborhood has been postponed until next fall--let's hope for a wet year! Here's more info from a Greensboro Beautiful press release:

Aycock Historic Neighborhood was recently awarded the 2007 NeighborWoods Tree Planting Grant created by Greensboro Beautiful and the City of Greensboro. As a result of the grant, the Aycock Historic Neighborhood was scheduled to receive up to 150 trees to be planted throughout the neighborhood.

Due to the extended drought conditions, however, the Urban Forestry Committee of Greensboro Beautiful and City staff has recommended that the 2007 NeighborWoods Tree Planting Program be postponed until November of 2008. The Aycock neighborhood will automatically receive trees next fall when the program is resumed.

This decision, although disappointing to the neighborhood, takes into account the City’s current water restriction policy, and the effect planting under these conditions would have on the trees' ability to adapt and survive. This decision also reflects our responsibility to spend wisely the monies donated to this program by our sponsors.

This year’s NeighborWoods Tree Planting Program is funded in part by a $7,500 grant from American Express. Other financial sponsors include the City’s Water Resources Department and private donations made to Greensboro Beautiful.

Wednesday 22 August 2007

September Board Meeting

Sorry for the lack of news lately, y'all: Your blog editor was on vacation, and then recovering from vacation...

Speaking of vacations: There is no Historic Aycock Board of Directors meeting for August. The meeting date coincides with the first day of school for Guilford County Schools and much of the August board obligations were taken care of at the National Night Out picnic (elections of new members, etc.).

That said, mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 25, 6:30 p.m., Community Room of St. Leo's Place.

During September’s meeting:

YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS THIS EXCITING OPPORTUNITY! As many of you know, the Bicentennial Commission has adopted the planned Center City Greenway. Chairs of the Bicentennial Commemorative Committee, Cathy Levinson and Robby Hassel will meet with us for 20 minutes to gather as much input as possible about the types of commemorative designations you would like to see along the Greenway. They are meeting with all the adjacent neighborhoods.

We will have an update regarding the progress of the Street Lamps in Aycock. Kym Smith has been working with Duke since she last met with us in July.

We will elect our new officers from the 07-08 board members.

If you've been looking for a reason to attend a meeting, now you have three good ones! Please join us on September 25.

Thursday 19 July 2007

Panhandling--and other downtown events

Downtown Greensboro, Inc.'s weekly newsletter included a valuable information sheet about panhandling. Along with a definition of panhandling and when/where it is allowed, the info sheet offers some excellent suggestions for how to help those in need when confronted:

PLEASE DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO ANYONE SOLICITING—there are agencies within the
city that can assist those in need. If they ask for food, refer them to
Greensboro Urban Ministry located at 305 E. Lee Street.

Greensboro Urban Ministry also sells $1.00 tickets that can be given to those
soliciting—those tickets are good for a meal at Potter’s Kitchen and on the back
of the ticket gives information about Greensboro Urban Ministry—the $1.00 you
spend for tickets helps them continue their mission of feeding and ministering
those who are in need.

For more information about Greensboro Urban Ministry, call—336—271-5959 for
emergency needs—336-271-5952; Potter’s Kitchen—336-271-5993.

On a lighter note, information about the upcoming week's events and new restaurants also are included in the newsletter.

July Board Meeting

Neighbors take note: This is not your ordinary monthly meeting.
Aycock Neighborhood Meeting
Tuesday, July 24, 2007 6:30 PM
St. Leo’s Place- Community Room
(located at the corner of Cypress and East Bessemer)
Open to all Neighbors and Interested Individuals
Neighbors are encouraged to attend


Agenda
6:30 – 7:00 PM Kym Smith, Greensboro Street Light Coordinator. Kym will address the city’s progress regarding our deteriorating street lights.

7:00 - 7:15 PM Community Watch Police Officer Melanie Daniels and Chet Arnold
7:15 – 7:30 PM Summer Picnic & National Night Out – SAVE THE DATE –August 7th. Jacynthia Mitchell applied and received a BSN Grant on behalf of our neighborhood. Hurray Jacynthia!

7:30 PM Beautification News
  • Neighborwoods Grant – WE GOT IT! FIND OUT WHEN WE START PLANTING! Thank you Laura Wall for initiating the grant and making this happen!
  • Yard of the Month
  • Home Improvement Award

7:45 PM Treasurers Report- Tracy Lamothe

7:45 PM Pecan Festival – Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 20, 2007

8:00 PM Minutes, President’s and Vice President’s Report – David Wharton

8:15 PM Certificates of Appropriateness

  • 627 Summit Avenue – Paint exterior of building; close in one entrance door at rear of building with brick
  • 709 Percy Street – Replace front porch floor with poured concrete
  • 111 Cypress Street - Exterior alterations to front porch
  • 613 Park Avenue – Replace square porch columns with round columns and other alterations as part of front porch repairs

8:30 PM Other

Monday 9 July 2007

Aycock's Big Bicentennial Plans

Today's Greensboro News and Record reported on individual neighborhoods' plans for celebrating the city's bicentennial next year. Unfortunately, Donald Patterson's article failed to mention Aycock's Big Plans.

Here's what everyone else is doing:
The city's bicentennial commission wants all of Greensboro's neighborhoods — well over 300 of them — to take part by staging their own celebrations. They'd be in addition to the citywide events already planned.

Events under consideration include cookouts, historical tours, block parties, historical picture exhibits, receptions, ecumenical services, a show-and-tell festival, ice cream socials, talent and sports competitions, and making scrapbooks, brochures and entrance banners.

Fisher Park plans tours of Green Hill Cemetery.

Lindley Park will hold a spring fling.

Glenwood wants to put on a multicultural festival.

College Hill plans to do a walking tour.

Warnersville wants to put on a community drama, a reunion and a mass choir concert. The Warnersville events, the largest to date for any neighborhood, will be the last weekend in April.


And here's what Aycock has planned:

Archaeological dig at Sternberger Park (where is that swimming pool?)

Civil War encampment at or near the Dunleith property

Living history tour (residents will dress up in costumes reflecting the period in which their homes were built)

Poster presentations of home histories (residents will research their home histories and display posters containing this history)


For more information, to offer suggestions, or to get involved with the above activities, please contact a Board member or email us at historicaycock@gmail.com.

Aycock Wins Neighborwoods Grant

From Laura Wall, Beautification Co-Chair:

Congratulations Aycock! We've been selected to receive the 2007 Neighborwoods Grant which will supply our neighborhood with up to 150 free trees on personal and public property.

Starting in August, we will begin working with the city and its urban landscape designers. Tree planting will occur in October or early November and will include the perimeter of Aycock Middle School, Sternberger Park and personal property. We will need hundreds of volunteers from Aycock at that time -- so clear your calendars!

Thank you to everyone for filling out your forms requesting trees and for filling out letters of support. The addition of these trees should really make an impact on the visual appeal of our neighborhood and will make our neighborhood GREEN.


Thank you, Laura, for coordinating this grant (the application for which turned out to be a book-length, exhaustive account of the neighborhood's need and support for this program).

Thursday 28 June 2007

Yard Sale Saturday, June 30

Several residents on Cypress, Percy, and Chestnut streets will be holding a multi-family yard sale in the neighborhood Saturday, June 30, from 7am to noon (or whenever the buyers stop coming). If you have any friends who enjoy a good yard sale, please let them know. If you want to join in, feel free to set up a table on your lawn.

If you're not able to attend or contribute to this sale, many residents have expressed interest in holding another sale in late summer or late fall (when the weather's cooler)--we'll coordinate another sale then!