You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March, 2008.
Homeowners, Jeff & Kathy Munzinger, of 2215 Country Lane, currently residing in Springfield, MO where Mr. Munzinger runs his company, wrote to me to inform neighbors that their son, Ethan, will be returning to the University of Missouri Medical School, and plans to reoccupy their house here in Country Club Estates. Ethan will be returning here after being away on study in another State this past year. Please welcome this young man back among us, as he continues his academic work to become a physician.
Good to hear from you, Jeff! Stay in touch.
Homeowners, Smith & Kilgore, are engaging yet another make-over at their home located at 804 Fairway Drive.
Contracting with landscape designer, Mr. Bruce Westbrook of Westbrook Landscape Designs, the entire front of the house will be cleared out, cleaned up, and carved into the soil for a character facelift. Work commenced last week, as the familiar white, two-rail fence was removed, along with all of the shrubbery and plantings across the front of the house. It all looks bare to the bones, but stay tuned as the design plan calls for some new shapes, many new foundation plantings, with punctuations of rock, small berms, and the addition of at least two significant shade trees.
Mr. Westbrook did an outstanding job last year in his design of a meditation garden with St. Francis of Assisi as the focal point, along with a very creative water feature meandering over native rock gathered from around Boone County. With his eye toward landscape spaces that create “other rooms” of the house, this latest design work will give a “new look” and a more complete flow to the landscape of this property.
The huge pile of mulch seen in the driveway? It was wheelbarrowed to the back flower beds, and into last year’s landscape design. More to come!
Stay-tuned! Watch and wait! Drop-by and drop-in to see this space unfold. We hope you’ll enjoy this fresh new look!
This evening, Monday, March 24, a “resurrection” of sorts appears to have occurred following the P&Z Commission meeting last Thursday evening. Yes, I think the paper neatly folded and slipped into the door handle of my front door, suggests new life has begun to surface around the concerns for the rezoning of the McAlester Trust land on the corner of Old 63 and Alfred Street. A plea to make contacts with 3rd Ward Councilman, Karl Scala is strongly encouraged in this flier, along with e-addresses and phone numbers of other City Council members.
Just in case you missed the flier I found at my door, here are some of the more pertinent details:
Almeta Crayton, 874-2475, Ward 1
Chris Janku, Ward2@GoColumbiaMO.com
Karl Scala, Ward3@GoColumbiaMO.com (We are in the 3rd Ward; so Mr. Scala is our elected representative to the City Council.)
Jerry Wade, Ward4@GoColumbiaMO.com
Laura Nauser, Ward5@GoColumbiaMO.com
Barbara Hoppe, Ward6@GoColumbiaMO.com
Darwin Hindman, Mayor@GoColumbiaMO.com
Public Hearing, MONDAY, April 21, City Council Meeting Room, 4th Floor, 701 E. Broadway, Daniel Boone Building.
You may also wish to contact Council members at:
City Council, PO Box 6015, Columbia, MO
The flier also offers two telephone numbers if transportation is needed for the meeting that night: 442-5423 or 442-9043.
Communications with Councilman Scala (voice, email, letters, in-person meetings) will help to reinforce his commitment to hearing neighbors, their opinions, and giving credence to neighborhood association’s voice in such matters.
Most importantly…consensus among us as neighbors will only serve to bolster the arguments we are trying to make. Let us all make contacts, communicate, and above all be committed to declaring our arguments with clarity and calm. Conflict and conflictual language will not serve our cause for overturning the decision of the P&Z Commission.
Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Discussion? Opinions? Action plans?
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who came out and sat through that LONG Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last night to help bolster our cause. Though the commission ultimately voted to recommend the rezoning to the City Council, our showing clearly had an impact on their decision making progress. The fact that the final vote was only 5-3 (in favor of rezoning) and that even some of the commissioners who voted “yes” indicated that they were having a hard time with that decision, indicates that we may have a chance to convince the City Council otherwise. We have good reasons to oppose this rezoning in our neighborhood, and we need to keep cool heads and continue to voice those reasons to the people who will make the final decision. The praise we heard from some of the commissioners – as a neighborhood that exemplifies the spirit of community involvement – was certainly welcome.
There’s a front page article in the Friday Tribune about it. Look here.
Martha K. John
Do we have a new neighbor on Country Lane? Does anyone know? Has anyone met them? Would someone be willing to meet them, welcome them to our neighborhood, and report back to our site with the information?
Have you heard about this? If not, here’s some reading you could be doing if you are interested in the future of the Columbia Metro Area (180 square miles) transportation planning process.
The Columbia Area Transportation Study Organization (CATSO) manages the federally-mandated transportation planning process for our area.
Interested parties are invited to attend a meeting at 5:30 P.M. on March 19, 2008 in the Mezzanine Conference Room, Daniel Boone Building, 701 East Broadway, Columbia, MO.
If this time is inconvenient for you, but you are interested in the plan, please contact the Department of Planning and Development for the City of Columbia at planning@GoColumbiaMo.com or by calling (573) 874-7239.
The draft CATSO 2030 Long-Range Transportation Plan projects growth in transportation demand to 2030; describes existing and proposed transportation investments; estimates costs and revenues for future improvements; and recommends strategies to meet transportation needs. A copy of the latest draft plan is available on line at:
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Planning/Documents/LRTPcompletedraft0208.pdf
You may also request hard copy drafts of the plan from the Planing and Development Department at the address noted above.
I propose a new “Category” for Neighborhood News that we might call: “Spotlight”. It could be a place to get acquainted with a neighbor; learn something new; share some history about the neighborhood; or highlight a neighbor for something great they’ve done. Once a month we could have a neighbor featured in this section, how long they have lived here, and whatever else may be of interest to our readers. What a great way to get to know a neighbor, and maybe make a new friend.
Feedback readers? Please give this some thought, and respond! I’m eager to hear from you. Let this become a place you come to often…monthly, weekly, perhaps…DAILY!
As reported in “Inside Columbia“, March-2008, page 195, the restaurant, Forge & Vine, takes a prestigious award, the 2007 Beef Backer Award, sponsored by the Missouri Beef Industry Council. Owner of the restaurant, Lance Morrow, our neighbor on North Country Club Drive, shared this news with me in a recent visit. Read the article by Anita Neal Harrison and learning something new about this newcomer to Columbia.
Congratulations, Lance, Billy Giordano, general manager, and Chef Jerad Shafer,and those great employees at Forge & Vine for this distinctive honor. We salute this wonderful new honor.
