What's the 311?

The public now can dial 311 to get quick and easy access to non-emergency City services. The call center is available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and the online forms are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Or visit the "311 - One Call to City Hall" page at the web site for the City of Fort Wayne. Here you can access links to e-forms where you can report things such as street lights outages, potholes, missed garbage collection and much more.

The City's web site has a great deal of information. Also look in the side bar of this blog for other important links.

City Utilities update

Here is the letter we all should have received from City Utilities, concerning new storm sewers. Please plan on attending the public meeting to discuss the details on Wednesday, June 4 at Forest Park United Methodist Church. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

Fort Wayne City Utilities
Planning and Design Services
One E. Main Street, Room 480
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802
May 8, 2008

Dear Kirkwood Park Area Resident:

Fort Wayne City Utilities is beginning design for the construction of new storm sewers in your neighborhood to help reduce the discharge of combined sewage into the St. Joseph River. This letter is your invitation to attend a public meeting to discuss the proposed projects. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 4 beginning at 7:00 PM at the Forest Park United Methodist Church at 2100 Kentucky Avenue.

Most of Kirkwood Park is served by combined sewers. These are sewers that carry sanitary sewage to the Water Pollution Control Plant (sewage treatment plant) in dry weather. However, when it rains or snow melts, these sewers carry a combination of sanitary sewage and storm water runoff. Many times the sewage treatment plant cannot treat all of the “wet weather” flow, so sewage is released to the St. Joe River.

As part of the City’s agreement with the Federal government to reduce the amount of sewage going to our rivers every year, we have agreed to build new storm sewers in many neighborhoods – especially those in the St. Joe River basin. Your neighborhood is one where new storm sewers are proposed on several streets to collect stormwater that goes into street inlets. The majority of the work will take place in public rights-of-way. No work on private property is anticipated, and the projects WILL NOT include any private plumbing modifications.

Please join City Utilities for this important meeting. Information that you may have about street drainage concerns or other issues in your neighborhood is vital to the success of this project, and we hope that you will attend the meeting to share information with us. The meeting will consist of a short presentation about the proposed storm sewer construction. Then staff members from the city will be available to discuss any concerns you may have about the project.

We hope to see you at:
Forest Park United Methodist Church
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Questions about the meeting may be directed to Wendy Reust in Planning and Design Services at 427-1367.

Sincerely,

Mary Jane Slaton, Program Manager

More local events

Upcoming Area Partnership meetings, courtesy Karen Goldner:

2nd District Community Meeting, Wednesday, May 21, 7 p.m., Shoaff Park Riverlodge. Hope to see you there!

Mother’s Day Plant Sale, May 9-11: Buy mom’s gift at the Foellinger Theatre, Sherman Blvd. Thursday and Friday hours are 4-7pm, Saturday hours are 9am-5pm and Sunday is noon-4pm. The proceeds from the flower sale will benefit the Botanical Conservatory.

Salomon Farm Fiber Arts Celebration, May 9-10, 10am-5pm. Discover the rich and diverse medium of fiber art – basket weaving, knitting, spinning, even sheep shearing and there will be purchasing opportunities to shop for supplies – yarns, quilting needs, products and more! The Fiber Arts Celebration is co-sponsored by the Flax and Fleecers Spinning Guild of Fort Wayne and the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department. Call Renee Baines at 427-6005 for more information. Due to the nature of this event, pets are not allowed. Come celebrate at Salomon Farm, 817 W. Dupont Rd.

Shoaff Park Spring Spectacular, May 10, 10am-3pm. The Conklin Pavilion at Shoaff Park is the place for family fun with face painting, balloon animals, messy games, arts and crafts, pottery demonstrations, watercolor, clogging, line dancing, bocce, fencing, geo-cashing, and more! This event is co-sponsored by Star 88.3.

Mother’s Day in the Garden, May 11: Treat your mom to a walk through the new spring showcase, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” This year, in honor of Foellinger Foundation’s 50th Anniversary, the whole family’s admission is FREE May 11, noon-4pm at the Botanical Conservatory, 1100 S. Calhoun St.

Upcoming events.

These come to us via our City Council representative, Karen Goldner:

City Council will spend Tuesday, April 29, discussing Tax Abatement Policy. The meeting is 5:30 p.m. in Room 128 of the City-County Building. There will be several speakers, lots of discussion, and an opportunity for public input. You can also watch the meeting on Comcast 58/Verizon 28 (both live and recorded later) or streaming video from the City's website (see "Links of Interest" in right-hand column).

Sol Fest is coming up at Fox Island the first weekend in May (May 3 and 4, noon-8 p.m.). There should be lots of fun events and it's a great kick-off to summer.

Primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 6. Lots on the ballot at all levels, national, state and local (Allen County). Please remember to exercise your right to vote!

The next 2nd District Community Meeting will be Wednesday, May 21, 7 p.m. at the Shoaff Park Riverlodge.

Shideler update

Many have wondered how the Shideler family is doing. Dean, Ellie and Pug have relocated to a home here in Kirkwood Park, and continue on in the process of cleaning up the debris left by the fire. It is a very difficult and exhausting process for them and there is still much to be done.

Dean and Ellie would like to thank the residents of Kirkwood Park and the Kirkwood Park Association for the help and support they've received. They don't know what they would have done without it.

IPFW Student Housing Incident

For those of you that may have been concerned about the incident at IPFW's Student Housing on Friday. I received this e-mail notification from the Vice Chancellor:

April 19, 2008 - 9:00pm

The Fort Wayne City Police have notified us that Tina Morris, the individual earlier identified as a "person of interest", has been charged with murder and auto theft in connection with the death of Liette Nicole Martinez in the IPFW Student Housing on Friday April 18. The police have assured us that this crime was an isolated incident and have suggested that we can return to our normal levels of vigilance as we go about our daily business on campus.

Walter J. Branson
Vice Chancellor for Financial Affairs

It's time for the Association Annual Meeting

The Kirkwood Park Association Annual Meeting will be held in the cafeteria at Concordia High School on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. We'd love to see our residents there. Come join your neighbors for dinner, fellowship and this important meeting.