September CTOP Meeting

Tommy Long from Code Enforcement spoke about their canvas of the Charleston Farms neighborhood. He estimates that they issued approximately 80 tickets. Bob King pointed out that even though the right-of-way in front of your house may begin at the sidewalk, you are responsible for maintaining the property all the way to the street, including edging the sidewalk. Daniel Nadeau is forming a committee to address the cleanup of the right-of-ways in our neighborhood. If interested in helping out, please contact Daniel at 912-695-4225 or daniel@danielnadeau.com.

Ben spoke about about a woman fleeing an abusive husband - her story follows: "Our nanny, Silvana, works closely with a small local church. They are trying to help a woman who has recently moved here from Myrtle Beach with her five children. Apparently, very sad story, she found out that her husband was sexually abusing her children, and so she left him in the middle of the night with no clothes or money. She is trying to get set up here, but she has nothing and no family in the area. They are currently living in a womans' shelter but will be moving into a small apt soon with help from the church. Silvana is trying to round up some items to get them started. Do any of you have any furniture, kitchen items, clothes, or anything that you don't need, maybe were planning to give away?"
Mother: Age 28, petite (size 8)
Girls: Ages 10, 8, 4, and 2
Boy: Age 6
Please contact Kate Besta if you are able to help with donations.

Bryan Cordell, Executive Director of the Sustainability Institute, spoke about the grant they received to build a neighborhood playground. "The Sustainability Institute, Noisette Foundation and City of North Charleston have been awarded a KaBoom Playground, valued at over $75,000, that will be installed in Palmetto Gardens Park this fall season directly behind the Institute's GreenHouse facility. This is a result of a partnership that we have built this year with the Home Depot Foundation.

"This playground will become a significant asset to our community. It will be a high-quality and cutting-edge, playground facility for physical activity for our families and their children living in the Park Circle area. In addition, it will become South Carolina's first, sustainably-designed playground (and one of the first in the country) that utilizes 100% low-impact, earth and people - friendly materials. We are very excited to bring this opportunity to our community.

"One of the special aspects of this project is that the playground facility is to be designed by the community -- everything from the materials to be used, to the specific pieces of equipment, to the educational "side projects" that are to be installed -- all to be designed by you and the children that will be playing on it. There is also an opportunity to build in equipment into the design that will support physical exercise for adults.

"Design Day" was held on September 10th. A mock-up of the design will be on display at the Sustainability Institute's temporary home on Storehouse Row for anyone who would like to see it. "Build Day" will be on November 10 and the community is encouraged to come show their support for this project.

Also, the Sustainability Institute will be working with Americorps to weatherize the homes of lower income residents. The Energy Conservation Corps program will train Americorps volunteers through Trident Tech's weatherization technician training and they will go out into the community to begin weatherizing neighborhood homes.

There is a neighborhood plant swap, Saturday, September 26 at 10am at the gazebo in Park Circle. For more information please click here.

Yard of the Month for June was John McCants at 5227 Braddock Avenue.
Yard of the Month for July was Sarah Gordon at 5044 Victoria Avenue.
Yard of the Month for August was Helena Russell at 5060 Poole Street.

Jewel Hayes won $9 in the 50-50, which she donated back to the club.

Yard of the Month for September

Congratulations to Bob and Jean King. Their house at 1408 Hartford Circle was selected Yard of the Month for September.

July Neighborhood Cleanup

About a dozen CTOP residents gathered near Filbin Creek on the morning of July 21 for a neighborhood cleanup. This event was organized by Hall West, an Americorps VISTA working for the Michaux Conservancy, a part of the Noisette Foundation. Through Palmetto Pride, she applied for and received a Community Pride Grant for two neighborhood cleanups – the other was in Chicora-Cherokee. Grant money was used to purchase everything from signs and koozies promoting the event, to gloves, trash bags, and safety vests used on the day of the cleanup.

Numerous bags of trash and recyclables were collected in the hour and a half volunteers worked and were taken away by the City of North Charleston trash collection and Charleston County Recycling. Some of the items retrieved were: tires, bags of yard waste, a door and a shopping cart. This was an inspiring event and it is something our community should continue to do to keep Attaway Street and Filbin Creek a neighborhood gateway to be proud of.