If you decided you’d like to volunteer to help on this build, thank you for volunteering. We are so glad you have decided to help!

If you haven’t had a chance to enter in your contact information on our website, please do so now. Our volunteer website is at

http://sites.google.com/site/mezesparkbuild/

COUNTDOWN: 32 DAYS TO GO!

We only have 32 days to go until build day, and there is a lot of work to be done. We have to do the following:

* Get donations for local food
* Raise $7500 dollars
* Sign up 200 volunteers.
* Sign up 15 build captains
* Have a build captain day on Thursday March 5th.
* And have fun!

I know this can seem overwhelming, but with the entire neighborhood pulling together I know we can do it.

VOLUNTEER COUNT: 16 CONFIRMED VOLUNTEERS

We have 16 confirmed volunteers right now, but I know that a lot of people who have expressed interest haven’t been confirmed yet. If you haven’t had a chance to sign up yet by sending me an email or going to

http://sites.google.com/site/mezesparkbuild/

Please do so now!

I have also sent email to a bunch of different groups to become volunteers. Here’s some of the groups Keli and I have contacted:

* City Staff of Redwood City
* Woodside Terrace Kiwanis
* Redwood City Orators Toastmaster Group
* Service Fraternity at Stanford
* SAL Organization at SJSU.

I know some people are working with the parents club at Orion School. If so, could you forward this report on!

Also, I’m looking for contacts at the following places.

* Woodside High School Service Organzations
* Sequoia High School Service Organization
* Canada College Service Organizations
* Clifford School Parents Association

If you can send me their contact info, I’ll invite them to join up.

GOOD NEWS!

Here’s some good news on the accomplishments we’ve made so far.

* A DESIGN HAS BEEN CHOSEN – Please see the website for more details.
* WE HAVE A DJ! – John Nelson from the Woodside Plaza neighborhood association has agreed to be our DJ. John is a long time resident of Redwood City, Chairman of the Woodside Plaza Neighborhood Association, realtor with Coldwell Banker, and puts on 2 great neighborhood parties every year. Please let John know we appreciate his volunteer efforts.

BUILD CAPTAINS

We are in need of 15 to 20 build captains. Build captains would be in charge of 10-15 people to do a particular activity. They would need to come on Thursday, March 5th for a half-day in order to prep the site and receive training. If you would like to be a build captain, please let me know.

COMMITTEE CHAIRS

We are in need of a few more committee chairs. Here’s the list we need.

* Food Chair – This person would coordinate with local businesses and volunteer groups to provide food on build day. Many of our Spanish speaking residents have indicated they’d like to help with this, so I bilingual speaker would be wonderful.
* Children’s Activities – This person would help the kids with activities on build day, and would also contact local schools (Orion and Clifford) to start a service education project.
* Safety – This person would coordinate the safety part of our project. In particular, we need people who can assist in case of an emergency (nurses or EMTs). I have reached out to Kaiser and Sequoia, but haven’t heard back yet.

Most important of these is the Food Chair! I’m feeling a bit behind here, so anyone who can help would be great!

SUMMING UP

This is going to be a great project with a lot of fun. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I know we will be successful, because I know that when people are called to help their community, they will bring their hearts and their hands.

Remember, “One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world.” (Ann Radcliffe)

Thank you for your help.

The grant for Mezes Park has been approved, and we have had a successful Design Day last week.   Now we need to recruit our volunteers to make the build day a success!

Here are the volunteer positions we need currently:

• Children Activities Chair
• Safety Chair
• Public Relations Chair
• Green Chair

Also, we are looking to immediately recruit 10-15 team captains.

The team captain’s job would be to recruit a build team of 15 people, and to serve as that team’s captain on March 7th.

If you or anyone you know could serve in any of these positions, please let me know.

Thank you,

David Amann

Can you help me get a little better organized?  If you would like to be an active member of our neighborhood, could you email me the following info to david.amann@gmail.com?

• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email Address
• How long have you lived here?
• What’s your biggest areas of concern for our neighborhood?

Thanks,

David

• Target date right now is for the end of February for the build out.
• The new playground equipment would be Playworld Systems.
• We would need a committee of about 12-15 people to help design the playspace.  Kaboom! would also like to involve a lot of kids in the neighborhood to help design as well.
• We would need to get about 150 volunteers on the day of the build.
• Kaboom! would like us to raise $7500; however, the city is committed to funding that.  I’ll still try and get some business contacts as well.
• Kaboom! would like to have a side project as well.  This could involve art work or murals.

The only thing  keeping us from making this a reality is getting the contract approved and the Kaboom! to approve our grant.  The city council can approve this on January 12th at their meeting.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

I know it’s short notice, but would folks be available on December
19th in the evening for this?  Or Dec. 20th in the evening?

I’m headed out of town for the holidays on the 23rd, and I’d love to
meet you before then.

Also, I’ve been trying to work with the Redwood High people to
schedule a room for an all neighborhood meeting, but I don’t think I
have the right contact.  Does anyone know who to contact there?

This is a community build project and would require volunteers from
the neighborhood to help design and build the playground.  Kaboom! and
the City would supply the materials, some volunteers for building, and
other necessities.

Redwood City informed me about this on Wednesday, and I will be
sitting on a conference call today to get more information.  It sounds
like a cool project and I hope we can get it done!

Let me know if you have comments or concerns.

1.  Construction along Cordilleras Creek – Bob Heyer on G Street
raised a concern regarding some construction occurring along the back
end of Bing Street on the San Carlos side of Cordilleras Creek.  As we
all know, this area can be prone to flooding and any narrowing of the
creek could increase that chance.

I’ve talked with the Engineering Director at San Carlos and he assures
me that the grade and line of that construction is exactly the same as
where it is currently.  He believes that it shouldn’t be an issue.
I’ll follow up with Bob to confirm.

2.  Mr. Frog’s Club – Gweneth Scove raised an issue concerning illegal
activity at Mr. Frog’s Club.  I have talked with the City Manager
Peter Ingraham about this,  He has taken it to the Chief of Police and
they are increasing patrols around this area.

3.  Parking Enforcement and Allied Waste Issues – Gweneth also raised
some concerns about parking enforcement, curb repainting, and some
issues with Allied Waste.  At my next meeting with the city manager
(in January), I’ll bring these up and see if we can get them
resolvied.

4.  Permit for Dredging Cordilleras Creek – Bill Fox clarified for me
the reason behind the permitting of dredging the creek.  Thanks,
Bill.  I will make sure to call Marilyn Harang at the Public Works
Department to get this dredging going after April of next year.  The
potential drought might make flooding less of an issue, but I’ll stay
on top of that.

5.  Sandbags for G Street – The Public Works department does have free
sandbags available to help prepare for flooding.  Please let your
neighbors know that they can pick up these sandbags at the Public
Works Department at 1400 Broadway.  Here’s a link to how to store and
use sandbags that the City provides.

I am in contact with City and County staff fairly frequently, so let
me know if there are issues you’d like me to bring up.  I will keep
you in the loop on these.