Our Spring meeting was held last Thursday, April 10. 
Attendance was 14, including Ward 3 Council Aide Naomi Lee; Kevin Woodard 
of  Sugar Hill Coalition;  Ivan Pino and Will Leipold from Tucson Clean & Beautiful; 
and Bill Morris, who is the manager at Parkside Terrace Apartments. 

Jacob updated our 2025 dates for the rolloff dumpsters: May 2, Nov 14. 

Ivan Pino provided information about the RainWorks Mini Grants program, 
which provides grants for increasing neighborhood green cover and capturing rainwater.  
It was agreed to look for a good site for such a project; the large intersection of Flores/Edison was mentioned as a possibility. 

Will Leipold provided information about the NeighborWoods program, which 
provides up to three free trees plus planting. Our neighborhood participated in
this program a couple of  years ago; it was agreed to participate again next fall. 

A representative of the Safe Streets Mini Grants program was also expected, 
however did not appear. 

Next a number of items were shared by Council Aide Naomi Lee:

* Free compost is available at the Ward 3 office on Grant. 
* On May 10 there is disposal of Household Hazardous Waste, at Jacobs Park 
(3300 N. Fairview Ave.) Document shredding too (up to 3 boxes). 
* An Earth Day cleanup event will occur in Barrio Blue Moon, Apr 22 8-10 AM. 
See https://climateaction.tucsonaz.gov/pages/teamup

Several other city-related issues were then raised and discussed with Naomi:

First was the ongoing problem with street lights being out. This is due mainly to c
opper theft, however the streetlight teams have also been understaffed, and also 
arterial streets have been prioritized above neighborhood streets.  This is the 
responsibility of DTM (Dept of Transportation and Mobility).  Unfortunately there 
seems to be no timeline for resolving this, although Naomi did note that the 
copper thefts have been moving out of Ward 3 due to various police actions.  

Bill noted that crime is on the rise in the easement behind Parkside Terrace, along 
El Capitan.  The streetlights are contributing to this, and also the longtime problem 
house at 2121 El Capitan. This house has no legal owner at the moment, and it was 
stated that TPD is working with (someone - Parkside Terrace?) to try to get this house 
settled and crime free.  

Kevin raised the longstanding question of street repairs,  and Naomi said that our r
epairs were waiting on work needing to be done by Southwest Gas, and that the 

Oliver raised the question of whether street lights could be made less light-polluting, 
which is at least theoretically a priority of the city. 

Greta asked about getting  additional recycling bins, including an orange bin 
(for difficult plastics).  Naomi noted that these bins are often misused for disposal of 
other trash, which makes them very difficult to process. The city is trying to figure out 
how to handle this. 

Michael asked about the ByFusion facility under construction at Los Reales, which 
 process difficult plastics into blocks that can be used for light construction.  The 
facility is not completed yet, but there are some sample blocks at the Ward 3 office.  

Jacob requested that the 3rd Ave drainageway be placed on a yearly maintenance 
schedule, since we always have to request that it be cleared at least once every year. 
Currently it is overgrown again. 

Lastly there was discussion of 2310 N 3rd Ave, the formerly vacant house which now 
hosts a rotating collection of disabled vehicles, along with piles of building materials 
and other trash.  It was decided that it should be reported for code violations.