July Updates – August picnic and other upcoming events
If you live in Southwest Olympia you are invited to our annual picnic on Saturday, August 17 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Decatur Woods Park. We will have a couple of grills and will supply hot dogs with fixings plus some beverages. Everyone is invited to contribute additional food items. If you bring a food item to share, we encourage you to fill out a tag with ingredients to help other neighbors who may have food sensitivities or restrictions. There will be kids’ games, music, and a welcome table with information about SWONA and other things local (such as a local 'gleaning' group and the West Central Park Project). To cut down on garbage, we encourage you to bring your own cups and utensils to supplement our own (disposable) supplies.
This year we will try three new things. In addition to the hot dogs we will also be providing a limited number of something vegan for the grill (haven’t decided exactly what yet). Slow Food Olympia will also be contributing some hand made ice cream towards the end of the event as a demo/ice cream social. We are also trying to work with the West Central Park group to sync our lunchtime picnic event with their evening music event, with hopefully a table and materials from each group at the others’ event. We hope to see you there. If you are interested in helping out (either with setup or breakdown or during) or have any questions, the point of contact for this event is Angela Rush (arushangela@gmail.com).
Our next SWONA neighborhood meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 19 from 7 to 8 p.m. at Gloria Dei Church (We should have the June meeting minutes up on the website shortly). The tentative agenda for September is an opening presentation on the new recycling realities post-Blue Sky initiative, followed by a continuing discussion on Sub-Area Planning.
In October we will also be helping to organize a Candidates Forum on the westside so people have get more informed prior to the November election (exact date and location TBD). Dan Leahy recently put together and organized distribution of a flyer with candidate positions on a topic of great interest to many of us, the current tax exemption policy for developers for market rate apartments in the downtown core and the main drags on the east and west side of town. Don’t forget to vote on the Primary election by August 6!