Kingston Cares has organized a community forum at 721 Media on Thursday, November 4th at 6:00pm. All residents are asked to join them to learn of recent survey results, develop work groups and address serious neighborhood issues that include housing, community safety, beautification, substance use prevention, community perceptions and media and job and business development.
For more on this, contact Megan Weiss, Project Coordinator at 845/331-1110.
By Rebecca Martin
Kingston Land Trust partners Diane Reeder (The Queens Galley) and Diane Davenport (Binnewater Ice) approved the mission and business plan for turning the South Pine Street Garden into a ‘Farm’ under the stewardship of Farmer Jesica Clark.
Community outreach and a press release will be available in the coming months. In the meantime, Jesica will begin preparing the plot in it’s entirety to include erecting a fence, doing soil tests, bringing in compost and other augmentation and trimming/removing trees in preparation for planting in 2011.
A working mission, partnerships and collaboration and bio of Farmer Clark is below. The garden name will change to reflect the farm’s mission.
If you wish to make an early donation towards this project, you can do so through the Kingston Land Trust.
Those who worked to farm this location during the 2010 season should be directed to Jesica while she is devising a new system for the space. If anyone is interested in working with Jesica this fall please email her directly as well. jesicaclark21@gmail.com
If you have any additional technical questions at this time, please feel free to contact the Kingston Land Trust at rebecca@kingstonlandtrust.org or call their office: 845/877-5263.
This is exceptional news for the garden movement in the City of Kingston.
Mission
The South Pine Street Garden will serve as a model of urban agriculture for the city of Kingston and beyond. A small scale market garden will show that agriculture can thrive in an urban environment and the site will be a place of learning as well as teaching for community organizations, businesses and schools.
Partnerships, Collaboration, Community
The garden and its growers will work in partnership with individuals and organizations in the community to achieve a garden and food based network. Partnerships include: Binnewater Ice Company, The Queen’s Galley and the Operation Frontline Program, the community (*) and the Kingston Land Trust.
In particular, an extraordinary partnership between the garden and the upcoming restaurant “Rosemary” is planned wherein the garden would provide featured produce to this high profile, innovative Kingston restaurant and the garden would also serve as a learning space for the restaurant staff.
(*) We will encourage members of the community to participate in the garden through volunteerism, workshops and organized garden “work and play” parties.
Farmer Jesica Clark Bio
Jesica Clark has worked in farming and small scale agriculture for eight years. She has organized community gardens, managed a small diversified farm in the Hudson Valley and worked for several for-profit as well as not-for-profit, educational farms. Having grown up in New York City and apprenticed in central Pennsylvania, she has experience in both urban culture and rural living. She is comfortable working with all members of a community and feels that good food is integral not only to physical health but also to social health.
Congrats to the organizers of the Bluestone Festival for a successful year! With little to no budget, they pulled it off in 2010 without a hitch, and beautifully so.
Special thanks to the Maritime Museum and all of the performers and presenters that gave their time and talents that day.
Read about it here by following this LINK
A video promoting the upcoming O+ Festival, and some of why Kingston is a very special place to live. Take note, NYC. We’re 90 minutes North. That’s all.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/15416302
Ad For The City Of Kingston, NY, And The O+ Festival from The Mystery of Creativity on Vimeo.
WBPM 92.9 annual Rally for the Galley radiothon continues today, Saturday October 2nd. Now is an important time to make a donation to support the Queens Galley.
The radiothon live broadcast is being held at the verizon wireless store
on rte 9w in Kingston with electric morning show hosts Jack Hammer and Andre Kane and Randy Turner with many special guests.
Make a donation by following this LINK
“Leave It On The Lawn, Kingston!” initiative continues for a second year in the City of Kingston.
The City of Kingston’s Mayor James Sottile, DPW Superintendent Michael Schupp and The Kingston Land Trust hope to save Kingston citizen’s tax dollars for a second year by encouraging residents to mulch their leaf landscape waste.
KINGSTON – With the recent passing of a mandatory leaf bagging law in the city of Kingston, public officials in connection with the Kingston Land Trust are asking residents to “Leave It On The Lawn, Kingston!” for a second fall season. The federal program that was initiated locally hopes to save citizen’s tax dollars by asking them to ‘help Kingston help itself’.
“Mulching leaves takes a serious waste disposal problem and stops it at its source,” says Rebecca Martin, Executive Director of the Kingston Land Trust. “Additionally, it takes 1/4 of a persons time rather than bagging them, avoids all municipal collection costs and provides valuable plant nutrients stored in leaves throughout the season to fertilize lawns and gardens naturally.”
A helpful brochure will be available at the city of Kingston’s Clerks office, Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Kingston Land Trust offices after October 10th about the program. To learn more on the initiative online, visit the city of Kingston’s website or contact Rebecca Martin, Executive Director of the Kingston Land Trust at 845/877-LAND (5263) or rebecca@kingstonlandtrust.org
Have you checked out how impressive the Town of Ulster’s website is? They’ve created a site that is easy and clear in its design and navigaton, making it simple to get important, up-to-date information. It offers timely agendas and minutes from each meeting and you can subscribe to the site and receive frequent updates on the weeks meetings/events/public hearings.
Check it out: Town of Ulster Website
Kudos to the Supervisor and his crew.
City of Kingston, let’s follow their lead here. How hard can it be?
The Ulster County Planning Board is seeking citizen participation. Here’s the scoop:
The focus of this meeting is to hear from you about improving the intersection at I-587 and Albany Avenue/Broadway to help traffic flow, maximize safety, and enhance this vital gateway to the city.
The objective of this public meeting will be to gather ideas and issues from the community in order to form a vision for a plan for intersection improvements. Part of this meeting will be a “hands-on” interactive workshop to collect ideas from the public for further evaluation by the study team. We want to hear from the community to target key areas of concern in this intersection study area.
* Can’t attend the meeting? Take the on-line SURVEY.
* Visit the UCPB web page and learn more about this project LINK
By Rebecca Martin
The Kingston Land Trust, an urban trust with offices in Uptown Kingston, is hosting several upcoming events that are community based and fun.
On Wednesday, September 15th the Kingston Land Trust will host it’s first ‘Dinner and a Documentary’ series with a complimentary screening of ‘The Chances of the World Changing” by critically acclaimed film maker Eric Daniel Metzgar. The event will take place at MINT Wine and Tapas Bar located at 1 West Strand in the historic Rondout section of Kingston. The community is invited to arrive at 6:00pm and encouraged to purchase drinks and dinner. The complimentary film will begin between 7:15 – 7:30pm and will include fresh popcorn and organic butter for guests.
Exactly one week later on Wednesday, September 22nd the Kingston Land Trust hosts its first annual Harvest Moon Benefit Concert. POOK (the Percussion Orchestra of Kingston) and the Kingston High School Jazz Combo will be featured. World renowned bassists Larry Grenadier and Vicente Archer will sit in with the combo (along with the youth musicians all being from Kingston, Larry is also currently a resident and Vicente born and raised). The event will take place at the Falcon Arts Performance space, 1348 Route 9W in Marlboro, NY. There is a suggested donation of $25 with children 18 and under for free.
To learn more about these event s and the Kingston Land Trust, click on this LINK.
The 9th Annual Hooley on Hudson will take place this Sunday, September 5th in the Rondout.
Read all about it by following this LINK.
It’s here!
The 16th Annual Soapbox Derby takes place tomorrow (Sunday), August 22nd 2010 at 1:00pm.
Anyone else wonder how Nancy Donskoj does it all? Give her a hand by making any size donation. You’ll find a ‘How You Can Help’ link at the website.
By Valeria A. Gheorghiu
This past Thursday, the Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) hosted a Public Visioning Session on August 19, 2010 to plan implementation of the recently passed Climate Smart and Green Jobs Community Pledge. With public participation, the Pledge aims to reduce Kingston’s electricity use by 15% by 2015 while simultaneously developing a green economy.
By Rebecca Martin
How many of you are familiar with the city of Kingston’s Bluestone and its history? Whether you are a novice or an expert on the subject, plan on visiting the annual Bluestone Festival on Sunday, October 3rd at the Maritime Museum in Kingston.
KingstonCitizens.org was able to have a quick sit down with organizer Ed Pell on how you can participate and what you can expect this year.
By Liz Lipton
For residents who are interested in developing walking and biking trails in Ulster County, here is a LINK to American Trails’ Web page with 50+ articles/ research studies on the economic benefits of such trails.
This Web page includes links to studies in the following categories: “Tourism,” “Benefits,” “Business,” “Valuing Trails,” and “Studies.” Here is a sampling of the studies listed in their respective categories. Some of the studies in “Valuing Trails” and “Studies” are of particular interest to those concerned with property values.
By Rebecca Martin
Today at 2:00pm (Wednesday, August 18th) there is a groundbreaking for construction at the Kingston High School campus at 403 Broadway.
Read the press release HERE and see you there.