By SHAIN HAUG
Holiday celebrations
By the time the December 2019 issue is published, the lights will be up on the fly-over bridge, the tree and lights will be shining at the Triangle, and the Holiday Festival will be a happy memory. We will report on these events in our January 2020 article. For the time being, we wish our community neighbors the happiest of holidays.
Town Hall meetings
We have some important topics to address in 2020. We hope you will join us on the fourth Tuesday of each odd numbered month at 6:30 p.m. at Benjamin Library. Our schedule includes:
Jan. 28 – A presentation by the local Census Team on the census procedures and the importance of a full count of persons in the community.
March 24 – Eric Bowlby of San Diego Canyonlands will describe our role in the preservation of Navajo Canyon.
May 26 – Dr. Pat Abbott of SDSU will inform us on the geology of the Navajo area and the earthquake faults that define much of our building codes.
July 28 – We are working on a presentation that will explain how the State Legislature is dealing with the housing crisis. The primary focus will be how this centralized planning will affect our control over our local zoning and of the character of our single family residential neighborhoods.
Our topics arise from comments and inquiries from our Allied Gardens and Grantville neighbors. Let us know what interests and concerns you.
Stella
The Allied Gardens/Grantville Community Council asked the community to welcome and support the 84 formerly homeless folks who took up residence at Zephyr on Alvarado Canyon Road. We now have a new challenge in Stella, the residence that recently opened at Fairmont and Twain.
This facility will offer permanent housing to 80 chronically homeless who are returning to a stable and productive role in society. Onsite counseling and support will be offered by the Interfaith Community Services and the Department of Veteran Affairs. We can help with their physical needs and we again call upon your generosity. Take your memory back to your first apartment and you will have a pretty good idea of what they need as they set out on this journey: New and unused items such as dish detergent, brooms, Tide pods, towels, personal hygiene products, soap and shampoo, garbage bags, laundry baskets to carry the donated items, laundry and carts, shopping bags, mops and dust pans, small hard floor vacuums, shower curtains/liners small garbage cans for the bathroom, toilet brushes, sponges, dishtowels, full bed sheet sets, blankets, rugs, and kitchen supplies such as silverware, glasses, plates, pots, pans and storage containers.
Once again Ascension Lutheran Church leads this effort and will handle collection of your contributions for delivery to our new neighbors. There will be box depository at the church, 5106 Zion Ave., in the parking lot (enter from 51st Street) as follows:
Thursdays and Fridays, Dec. 19, 20, 26, and 27, 2019 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Sundays, Dec. 22 and 29, 2019 between 8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Website
Take a look and give us your suggestions for what we should include in and exclude from the site. We need you to tell us what is of value to you. Visit aggccouncil.org.
Board of Directors meetings
The Board of Directors meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Benjamin Library, at the corner of Zion Avenue and Glenroy Street. The next meeting will be on Jan. 7. The public is welcome; we encourage you to join us.
— Shain Haug is the President of the Allied Gardens-Grantville Community Council. Reach him at aggccshain@yahoo.com and let him add you to our email contact list.
