| Rain garden trend takes root in Clive
Work began this week to prepare the area just east of the public library for a rain garden, an environmentally friendly way to absorb water runoff during storms.
The garden will replace an existing detention pond.
"I'm excited. I think it's going to be very neat," said Lisa Schmidt, Clive's assistant city manager.
Schmidt spearheaded the project and secured money through a Metro Waste Authority program to cover the roughly $16,000 cost.
In late May, West Des Moines-based Heard Gardens will begin work on the garden, which will have more than a dozen native plants.
"From a green perspective, the whole rain garden concept makes a lot of sense," said Patty Reeve, a landscape designer for Heard Gardens who designed Clive's garden.
Spring gardening savings begin with Northwest Natural Yard Days
Beginning Sunday, April 15 everyone from Bellingham to Olympia can take advantage of savings of up to 25 percent on natural yard care products such as mulch mowers, bagged compost, bark mulch and water wands as part of the ninth-annual Northwest Natural Yard Days campaign. The partnership between King County, the City of Seattle, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and 23 other agency members promotes environmentally friendly yard care by offering discounts on gardening products at 86 participating retail locations throughout the Puget Sound region. "We continue to support the Northwest Natural Yard Days discounts every year because the reduced pricing encourages more people to practice natural yard care," said Gerty Coville, of the King County Solid Waste Division.
Neighbors angry with overgrown lawn
The city gets an average of 800 complaints every month of neighbors not taking care of their property... and Neighborhood Services says they will respond within 24 hours -- but one couple says they've had a problem with their neighbor's yard for four years. The Groves are retired military -- and they say when they're too weak to cut their own lawn, they make sure to hire someone who can. "It's not that easy for us anymore," Margot Groves said, "but we take care of our stuff." The Groves have lived in this neighborhood for 40 years -- and they say this house has been abandoned for about four years now... They're constantly taking care of the overgrown yard, because they say the city hasn't been responding to their calls. "We hear all about beautifying downtown, here and there, but what about the rest of Lawton?" Margot asked? "The homeowners?" The lawn is a constant problem for them, and they have already called the city three times this year.
New Ignacio Library becoming a reality
What started out as a dream is slowly becoming a reality. Though the structure of the future Ignacio Community Library is currently a skeleton of support beams and concrete, by mid-July it will be a two story, 11,000 square-feet architectural marvel.
On April 14 interested community members gathered to learn about the future library and to tour the structure. The first floor of the new library will house an estimated 600 square feet community room, a childrens room, an adult reading room furnished with a welcoming fireplace and a teen room. The second story, accessible by either a flight of stairs or an elevator, will have a multi-purpose room and numerous study rooms all with wall carpeting to reduce noise.
In addition to more much needed space the new library will have 29 available computers.
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