The NMCA Board normally meets the first Wednesday of each month at the Bobby Pearse Community Center. Members are welcome to attend meetings but it is suggested you check the calendar on the website or contact a board member to make sure we are meeting that month.
Update on “Cottages at Townes”
Neighbors are studying an appeal of the Planning Commission decision. The city code requires that the appeal must be filed by February 15. We will keep you posted.
In the meantime, rumors abound about what is happening. Unfortunately, concrete details are hard to come by and no one is willing to go on record as far as what is actually happening in ‘behind the scenes’ conversations in terms of the size or number of the houses, the footprints, alleyway issues, etc. Just keep in mind that if a revised plan is submitted by the builder it would come before the PC on March 14. You might want to tentatively hold that date open on your calendar if possible. We will need support if this happens. For those who have not seen the article describing the development plans (and the comments received) you can check it out on the NMCA website. You can also still register comments on our website or by contacting one of more city council members to voice your concerns. Their emails are provided here for your convenience. adoyle@greenvillesc.gov, gsprague@greenvillesc.gov, lflemming@greenvillesc.gov, DSudduth@greenvillesc.gov , sreynolds@greenvillesc.gov, jlittlejohn@greenvillesc.gov .
Please Don’t Top Your Trees
“Topping is perhaps the most harmful tree pruning practice known. Yet, despite more than 25 years of literature and seminars explaining its harmful effects, topping remains a com
mon practice.” This statement is from a brochure printed by the International Society of Arboriculture explaining why topping is not an acceptable pruning technique. Topping is the indiscriminate cutting of tree branches to stubs or lateral branches that are not large enough to assume the terminal role. Other names for topping include “heading,” “tipping,” “hat-racking,” and “rounding over.” The most common reason given for topping is to reduce the size of a tree. People fear that tall trees may pose a hazard. Actually, topping will make a tree more hazardous in the long term.
Because you are removing so much of the “food factory” of the tree (i.e. the leaf-bearing crown), the tree reacts to this ‘starvation’ by activating latent buds and sending out a multitude of shoots below each cut. Because it is stressed, it is also more prone to insects and diseases, decay, sunburn, etc. And, yes, crape myrtles are trees too, but those are often the ones you see that have been tipped drastically (see photo above for an example of “crape MURDER”) For more information on the problems with topping and some alternatives, go to the TreesGreenville Tree Care Tip. You can also check out Greenville’s Guidelines for Tree Pruning.
Crime Update
We often hear about crime issues in the North Main area. When we find out about these events quickly (often via emails or contacts via our website) we can send out this info to our members. So if you see or hear of activity in your area, let us know. The information in the City’s Crime Alert may be from several days previous.
Most recently, there was a break-in on Pinehurst. We understand this occurred in broad daylight. On Jan 31 in Dellwood, an unknown suspect entered a home by breaking a glass pane in a rear door. The home was ransacked and several electronic items were stolen. On January 27, change was taken from an unlocked car on W. Earle Street. NEVER leave your car unlocked or with the keys in it. Two bicycles were reportedly stolen from a house on W. Avondale just last week.
Neighborhood involvement is the key to a safe and secure community! Let’s keep ‘Neighborhood Watch’ active in North Main. For more on protecting your home, go to http://police.greenvillesc.gov/protecting-your-home.aspxgram
Greenville Business Watch
Business Watch is a program that started in November of 2005. The Greenville Police Department developed a unique program that includes weekday emails to city businesses that have signed up for the program, and participants receive an e-newsletter that details Part I type crimes such as armed robbery, burglary, autobreaking and auto theft that have been reported in the city. Additionally, a crime analyst for the Police Department includes a synopsis that details current crime patterns in neighborhoods and in the business community, reviews arrests made and shares progress in investigative cases. Business Watch members also receive “Wanted” fliers and fliers that detail crime patterns that affect city residents, such as scam artists and unidentified criminals from surveillance videos. If you are a business within the Greenville City limits it’s easy to sign up online at the Business Watch website.
Weather Tidbits
According to climate data, the average maximum temperature for Greenville in February is 54.7°F, the average low is 33.1°F and the average precipitation is 4.02”. The record maximum for the period 1962-2006 was 81°F on Feb 27, 1996. The record minimum was 8°F on Feb 25, 1967. Record high rainfall was in 1971 with 7.43”. Average snowfall in February is 1.62”. The highest recorded for this period was 12.3” back in 1978/79. This part of the state typically has a 60 – 80% chance of snow in any particular year.
It’s official (but not surprising): South Carolina set a new state high temperature record in 2012 recording 113 oF on 29 June at USC Columbia. Weather records held by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC, and within the SC State Climatology Office in Columbia indicate that previously the official highest temperature of record in South Carolina was a shared value of 111 °F at Blackville on September 4, 1925, at Calhoun Falls on September 8, 1925, and at Camden 2WSW on June 27, 1954.
What’s in store for this spring? According to the February 05, 2013 report from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, the surface forecast calls for warmer than normal temperatures for Alaska, the eastern Great Lakes, the East Coast States and the Appalachians. Below normal temperatures are likely to the west of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Above-median precipitation is likely for Alaska, much of the Great Plains, the Mississippi Valley, and eastern CONUS. Below-median precipitation is likely for the the Pacific Coast States.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html http://www.dnr.sc.gov/climate/sco/index.php
Vote for Greenville!
Southern Living Magazine is having a contest for the Tastiest Town of the South and Greenville is one of the cities in contention for the top spot! Go to this Southern Living Website to VOTE for our city everyday through the end of February. As of today Greenville is in 5th place. Get those votes in!!! GO GREENVILLE!!
Lost and Found Pets
One of the things we like to do is help reunite owners with their pets. If you let us know when a pet is missing, we can send out an email blast as well as post on our website and you can also post on our facebook page. Many have also found it helpful to place posters on telephone poles, etc. If you do this, PLEASE remember to go back and remove the posters once your pet has been found. We’ve noticed that it’s becoming a litter issue when posters are left, it rains, they blow down and become litter. Thanks for your consideration!
Biking in Greenville
Greenville’s bikeway network is expanding. Over recent weeks, several new Bike Route wayfinding signs and pavement markings have been added to the Cleveland Park and Laurens Road area. The new signage is intended to assist bicyclists discover existing bikeways such as the Swamp Rabbit Trail, Laurens Rd. Bypass, and Pleasantburg Dr. Bypass. A Google Map of Greenville’s existing Bike Routes is available at http://goo.gl/maps/RwZIV
The City of Greenville has also contracted with a private company to install approximately 6-miles of new on-street bikeways that will connect with existing facilities as well as Greenlink transit routes. These facilities include dedicated bicycle lanes as well as Sharrows (Shared Lane Symbols). These new facilities are currently under construction with an expected completion date of 3/1/2013. A Google Map of these new facilities are available at http://goo.gl/maps/J0gFh For additional information, visit the city’s Bicycle Friendly Community initiative, Bikeville, at www.bikeville.org
Carpooling Request
One of our members has a daughter (Jennifer Cassaday) who lives on North Main and has 2 kids that attend Greenville High School. Ms. Cassaday is hoping to find someone to share a carpool as a means of getting the children to school. While the North Main Community Association is not sanctioning, endorsing or otherwise sponsoring this type of activity, we are willing to pass these types of requests along to our members. Accordingly, if you or any of your neighbors would be interested in carpooling with Ms. Cassaday, please contact her at 630-8219 or via email at j_cassaday@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: This is for informational purposes only and is not a North Main Community Association sponsored activity. As such, NMCA is not endorsing, sanctioning or otherwise encouraging your participation in this activity. Accordingly, NMCA accepts no legal responsibility or liability for your individual decision to participate in this activity.
Flash From the Past
From Last Month:
Thi
s photo was from the December issue. Since the editor had no idea where this photo was taken, we were relying on our readers to help out. We’re still not sure. One member wrote in that he recognized this house as being near his current residence. That would make the address 333 West Earle Street. Since then, we had a couple of readers who thought this was the Perkinson’s house on James Street. Anyone who can verify this?
According to the Baltimore Journal of Commerce and Manufacturing Record, “the company that erected the Huguenot Mill at Greenville formed February 10, 1881; a charter was obtained March 13; a lot bought in the heart of the city and the first brick laid March 23, the last June 2; by July 22 the machinery was in place and the mill weaving cloth.”
The Huguenot Mill was also an example of advanced planning and design. Organized by Charles E. Graham and Charles H. Lanneau, the company had a capital of $150,000. Lanneau, the superintendent, was a self-taught miller who had been treasurer of the Reedy River Mill at Conestee. The Huguenot Mill, a two-story brick building incorporating the latest fireproof techniques, was located on the Reedy River adjacent to the carriage factory. But its two hundred looms, built by Wood of Philadelphia, were not driven by waterpower but by an eighty horsepower engine. The mill manufactured plaids, cottonades, and gingham — the only such mill in South Carolina. It originally employed 120 operatives. By 1893 the mill had 2,750 spindles and employed 175 people. . (Source: Greenville: The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont by Archie Vernon Huff (1995) pg 189.)
The Gilfillin and Houston Building is an excellent example of the vernacular expression of the commercial style built in the first quarter of the twentieth century in downtown Greenville, during a significant boom period in the city’s growth and development as a commercial and textile manufacturing center. This two-story commercial block, constructed ca. 1915, was built as a speculative development project for Gilfillin & Houston, a real estate and insurance company founded in 1899 by Eugene Alexander Gilfillin (1875-1958) and Louis Houston. The building’s façade, laid in five-to-one American or common bond, is organized into two storefront sections, each being flanked by rusticated brick pilasters two stories in height. Each section contains a rehabilitated commercial storefront with a recessed single-leaf entrance with glass transom, and flanking brick bulkhead and display windows divided into three segments. Above the entrance and both storefronts is a wooden frieze and cornice that visually divides the building’s two levels. The façade’s visual division is accentuated further by the presence of a metal cornice that breaks or is open at the center. Crowning the building’s façade is a curvilinear brick gable and parapet embellished with a central, circular, limestone-keyed and brick-surrounded cartouche containing the letters “G” and “H” intertwined. Listed in the National Register June 9, 2004.
Two New ‘Old’ Photos:
Calendar
City Council Formal Meeting and Work Session schedules can be found at http://www.greenvillesc.gov/city_government/meet.asp
The Hughes Main Library has numerous programs for adults and children. Check out their February Calendar
Don’t forget about a great local resource for family activities. Macaroni Kid lists all kinds of local activities for kids and families.
Greenville County Museum of Art – The Museum is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm and on Sundays 1 – 5 pm. As always, admission is free. The Greenville Collection is now the largest and the most complete collection of Andrew Wyeth’s watercolors owned by any public museum in the world. Discover this magnificent collection of works by America’s iconic watercolor master. Highlights include Four Poster and Dusk.
Now through April 7 – Looking Through the Lens: A Photographic History of Greenville. Upcountry History Museum. Explore Greenville through a century of photographs. See how it has gone from a small town with dirt roads and horse-drawn carriages to the vibrant, bustling city it is today. Notable people, businesses, and events are chronicled through historic images, and bygone street scenes are paired with modern views of the city.
February 12 – North Main Blood Drive. Northgate Soda Shop. (Debra Stapleton Memorial Blood Drive) Tuesday, February 12th from 4 – 8 PM. Two free movie tickets or T-shirt for all donors. Make sure to drink plenty of water and eat before donating. You can donate blood every 56 days.
February 14 – The Community Tap will hold their annual Valentine’s Day cheese, chocolate, wine and beer tasting from 6:30 – 7:30 PM. $40 per couple, reservations and prepayment required please. See their website for other February events.
February 14 – Hillcrest Garden Club. Greenville Women’s Club, 8 Bennett St. 10 am-Refreshments. 10:30-meeting called to order. Program: “Nature’s Garden – A Return to Paradise” Jean Wilder will give a unique perspective on the ecology of suburban gardens, as well as the latest science about attracting wildlife in the garden. The importance of native plant material will be a highlight of this Power Point presentation.
February 15-17– Carolina Foothills Dog Show Cluster. TD Convention Center.
February 15-18 – Great Backyard Bird Count. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual 4-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are. Beginning in 2013, GBBC checklists will be accepted from anywhere in the world! Everyone is welcome–from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds.
February 19 – SCNPS Upstate Chapter Meeting and Program. “How Clearcut Does it Have to Be? 7-9pm. J Verne Smith Technical Resource Center Auditorium on the Main Campus of Greenville Tec, 620 South Pleasantburg Drive. Speaker: Janisse Ray.
February 23 – C. Dan Joyner Mission Backpack 5K and 1 mile walk. 8am – 10am. First Baptist Church, 847 Cleveland Street. Race/walk in memory of C. Dan Joyner to raise money for Mission Backpack which supplies food on the weekend to Greenville’s elementary children in need. 8:00am the 5k starts, 8:15am the 1 mile walk starts at the First Baptist Church and the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
February 28 – Camp Opportunity’s 7th Annual Adult Spelling Bee. 6-10pm. The Handlebar. 304 E. Stone Ave.Camp Opportunity will be back at The Handlebar for our 7th Annual Adult Spelling Bee, including a live auction and special guest entertainers. Thirty teams of four spellers will compete for bragging rights and to raise money for a great cause. Interested in competing? Please contact us! All proceeds raised from this event will go directly to Camp Opportunity’s year-round children’s programming, including our annual summer camp, adventure trips, and other educational and enrichment activities for the children we serve.
Admission: $5/Spectator $200/Competing Team of Four
March 1 – TD Reedy River Run: Kids Races. 5:45 – 7:30pm. South Main @ Augusta. An untimed event for youngsters. Contact: Joe Lanahan. Telephone: 864-303-0744
March 2 – TD Reedy River Run 5K and 10K. 8:30 am to 1pm. 104 S. Main St. The 10K course starts heading north on Main Street at McBee, in front of the TD Bank building.
March 7 – Benefit for Safe Harbor: Fashion with a Passion. A night of fashion, food and fun from Greenville’s finest. You’ll enjoy an evening of celebration including:
- A New York-style runway show featuring styles from the Upstate’s most popular boutiques:
- Fabulous eats and drinks from the Poinsett Club
- Fantastic silent auction items for bid including vacations, spa packages, wine offerings, dining experiences, golf outings and more.
Tickets are $55 in advance or $60 at the door on March 7. A limited number of VIP seating tickets ($85 per ticket) and VIP tables ($650 for a table of eight) are available as well! All proceeds go to Safe Harbor to help provide victims of domestic violence with safe emergency shelter, counseling, legal advocacy, as well as support community outreach and education in Greenville, Pickens, Anderson, and Oconee Counties.
March 10 – St.Patrick’s Day Parade. 1pm – 2:30 pm. Starts on South Main Street at Wardlaw St. For more info, email lenbyrne@yahoo.com
March 12 – The Greenville Police Department Citizen’s Education Academy. The Citizen’s Education Academy had been designed as a mechanism to bridge the gap between Law Enforcement and the citizens that the Greenville Police Department serves. The paramount idea is to educate the public about the operations of the Greenville Police Department so that preconceived notions can be dispelled. The Citizen’s Education Academy will also inform the participants about Greenville City offered services and avenues to find help. Classes begin on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, and will go through May 14, 2013. There will be a total of ten sessions. Sessions will be held every Tuesday from 6:00 P.M. until 8:30 P.M. Attendance is free.
March 16 –St. Patty’s Day Dash and Bash 5K and 10K. 8am – 10am. Fluor Field. 947 South Main St. A run/walk to raise awareness and funds for Make-A-Wish Foundation of South Carolina, Camp Spearhead and Let There Be Mom. Registration begins at 6:30am at Fluor Field and 10K run/walk starts at 8:00am and 5K run/walk starts begins at 8:15am. The start line begins at South Main and Augusta Street
For other community events, check the Greenville City calendar
Or, the Greenville Convention and Visitors Bureau
Winter/Spring Programs at Greenville Community Centers
Program Instructors Needed
The City of Greenville Parks and Recreation Department is seeking instructors to offer fun and exciting recreational and educational classes to our community. Our department offers a wide variety of recreational programs to citizens of all ages. These programs take place in city parks, community centers and other locations. For a full listing of programs visit http://www.greenvillesc.gov/ParksRec/RecPrograms.aspx
To view the winter/spring program calendar for the Bobby Pearse Community Center, go to the Parks and Rec website
- To view the winter/spring program calendar for the Sears Recreation Center, go to the Parks and Rec website You will be able to view program information and pay directly online.
For additional information about each of the programs visit http://www.greenvillesc.gov/ParksRec/RecPrograms.aspx
Community Center Rental
Planning a special event like a wedding reception, birthday, anniversary or family reunion? Why not have your events at the Sears Recreation Center? It is conveniently located in McPherson Park at the corner of North Main Street and E. Park Avenue (100 E. Park Avenue). Some of the Community Center features are:
Kitchen, Restrooms, Handicapped accessible, Piano, Banquet tables & chairs, Plenty of parking, Sound system
Contact Jan Cox at 864-467-4326 or jbcox@greenvillesc.gov for more information and availability.
The City of Greenville Parks and Recreation is working with LiveWell Greenville to promote healthy eating among our athletes. Watch this short video to learn more about eating healthy snacks at youth sports!
If you are delinquent in your NMCA dues, you will soon be getting an invoice in the mail. We are hoping this will help avoid confusion in the future for those who can’t remember if they’ve paid or not. Please pay promptly when you receive it and tell your neighbors about us, too! Thanks!
The use of trade names or advertisements in this publication does not constitute endorsement or discrimination by the North Main Community Association.
