PHELPS
NEIGHBORHOOD
ASSOCIATION

PARKING LOTS ARE HISTORY
Never Tell This Neighborhood Anything is Impossible


Major changes on the northern edge of our neighborhood have begun. If you haven’t noticed, the parking lot located on the south side of the 900 block of E. Normal St. has become a green lawn. Who would have ever thought such a reversal of the bulldoze-and-build-more-parking-lot policy was possible six years ago? (Certainly not the city or SMSU!). Thanks to this neighborhood’s vision (and tenacity) parking lots south of Normal St. are being turned into green space. Hang onto your hats, neighbors, even bigger transformations are about to begin. Around May 17 construction will begin on a green space and storm water detention basin between campus and the neighborhood just as agreed upon in the in the Phelps Grove Neighborhood Plan. ( Ok, it is a year late, but who’s counting as long as progress is happening!!) The remaining parking lot located on the south side of 1000/1100 block of E. Normal St., as well as the parking located adjacent to National Ave. will be removed to make way for the construction of a storm water detention basin extending all the way to the corner of Grand and National. Parking lots will no longer dump thousands of gallons of water onto the streets and lawns of the neighborhood. The water will be detained and discharged directly into the storm drain. Florence Ave. will be removed, starting from the alley between Normal and Delmar all the way to Grand. A new driveway will connect the remaining lot to National,. replacing Loren and Florence as the driveway to SMSU parking! The Phelps Neighborhood Association (PNA) and SMSU have worked hard in coming up with a solution that would minimize the impact on that area. The city provided the design for the basin. (We all know the history of the city producing unsightly, treeless, storm water detention basins.) Both the PNA and SMSU rejected several schemes before agreeing on the one to be built. Of course making way for such a large detention basin does have its down sides. Many of the trees located in that area will have to be removed to make way for the basin. (The original scheme proposed removing all the trees in that area.) The detention basin being built will actually consist of three "smaller" organic shaped basins. This provides for groups of mature trees to be preserved between the basins, and also minimizes the impact of such a large detention basin. Unfortunately, the entire row of hemlocks along Grand at National has been removed. On the upside, SMSU will be planting trees and shrubs after construction is complete. (Providing there are no delays in the project, the planting should occur this fall). The PNA will have input on the planting plan being prepared by SMSU. We have been told these trees will be at least the same size as those planted by PNA along Dollison St. In a few years ( a decade or so) the finished product will begin to resemble the Phelps Grove Park, a far cry from the asphalt parking lots once planned for that area!!

Fire Station Jumps First Hurdle

The Phelps Neighborhood Association’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the relocation of a fire station to the site located on Grand, east of Holland St. Springfield City Council is in the process of approving the funds to buy the house on the corner of Holland and Grand, and the house to the immediate east of the six empty lots in order to have sufficient space. The phone calls we received assured the board they were making the right decision. The fire station is not a done deal. It will be built only if voters approve continuing the current bonding level. The issue will be voted on August 3, 1999.

EMPTY LOT SOLD
All things come full circle

The empty lot located at 625 E. Normal St. has sold. If you remember, it became empty several years ago when SMSU was practicing block busting. SMSU bought and tore down the house once located there, thus marking "their" territory! Thank goodness the new administration is practicing a Public Affairs Mission which abandons the block busting policy. (If you remember, SMSU signed an agreement with the city not to expand south of Grand Street) The lot, owned by the City of Springfield, was recently sold. Preference was given to a buyer wanting home ownership (actually the city requires the house to remain owner occupied for two years) and in addition required a front elevation sketch of the house to make sure the house built will be compatible with our neighborhood. It looks like we will be getting not only and new house, bu a new neighbor.

 

Neighborhood Garage Sale
Saturday, June 5

 

7^TH ANNUAL CLEAN-UP

As usual, the clean-up went great. We have an incredible bunch of neighbors. Many of these people volunteer year after year, but we were thrilled to have a few new faces. (However, we sure would like to see more new faces next year.) The clean-up was completed before 11:00 a.m. thanks to the fast pace of our volunteers. Many thanks to those people who properly bundled their waste. This makes the job so much easier for the volunteers. If you haven’t already noticed, take a look at the shrubs planted at the southern end of Dollison on the median. Yes, that was your neighbors planting last Saturday, not a prison work release crew!! Never have shrubs been planted and mulched so fast --- twenty-two shrubs in 30 minutes. It is amazing what a large approaching thunderstorm can do for productivity. The clean-up event is only a success because neighbors are so gracious with their time and volunteer!

If you are wondering who you should thank, here is the list of neighbors which made this event possible.

        Whitney Danielsen                 Edward DeLong
        Marion DeLong                     Bob Edwards
        Jack Dunn                             Nancy Danielsen
        Jo Cunningham                      Vicky Trippe
        Kenny Knauer                       Terry Rowland
        Carolyn Ruff                          Bob Shaw
        Tim Keeling                           Renee Tyson
        Mary Butler                           David Trippe