NSNA News & Updates

rek announcements, General, Uncategorized

November 2024 North Street Neighborhood Association Meeting Agenda

Our November meeting will be on Thursday, November 7th, at 6:30pm, at Bashford Church, with a call-in option (no video). You can view the meeting agenda, which includes the call-in information, meeting materials, and announcements. 

November is when we hold our officer elections. Any member is eligible to run to be an officer, and you can nominate yourself. We need to elect a secretary, treasurer, and co-chair. The secretary and treasurer are one-year positions, and the co-chair is a two-year position. The co-chair for this year must be a resident of Emerson East. The secretary and treasurer can be from either neighborhood. All members of the association who are present at the meeting can vote for officers.

There are a few items that will be added to the agenda once they are ready. Those are the minutes from October 2024 (which will be added directly into the agenda) and information from Bear Development about their project (which will probably be a link to a PDF).

rek announcements, events, Greenspace

Greenspace Volunteer Opportunity

After applying for Free Native Plants for Schools and Community Projects, we received a donation of approximately 200 plants for the East Washington Butterfly site near the Ella! 

Eken Park Butterfly Gardens Volunteer Opportunities – October 5th and 6th
Meet at the butterfly gardens at East Washington and East Johnson (Car-X/Ella side).

Site Preparation for New Plants
Saturday 10/5/24 10:00AM – Approx. 12:00PM
General weeding and preparation of the turf area for planting.

Planting New Plants
Sunday 10/6/24 10:00AM – Approx. 12:00PM
Help plant all the donated plants at the new site!

To join the Greenspace Committee Newsletter, visit the Greenspace Committee Page

rek Uncategorized

Reminder: Time to renew your membership

If you’ve been a North Street Neighborhood Association member, thank you! If you are interested in joining, now is a great time.

Our membership year ended on August 31st. We hope you’ll continue to be a member for the membership year that starts September 1, 2024 and goes until August 31, 2025. You can renew your dues by going to https://northstreetna.org/join-nsna, where you can select whether you are an individual or a household, and how you’d like to pay your dues (as well as how to apply for a waiver of your dues).

If you are planning to come to the NSNA meeting on Thursday, September 5th, you should renew ahead of that so that you can vote at the meeting (anyone is always welcome to attend). You can even renew online and then bring your dues in cash or check (made out to North Street Neighborhood Association) to the meeting.

Note: if you have paid your dues since August 1st, you are all set for the year and don’t need to pay again until next year.

By the way, you should have gotten a postcard in the mail from us – we’re doing a neighborhood survey at https://northstreetna.org/survey, and we’d love to hear from you.  

rek festival

Eken Park Fest is this Saturday, August 17

Our North Street Neighborhood Association’s annual Eken Park Festival is coming up this Saturday from 11am to 8pm…now in the actual park! That’s right, the festival will be held in Eken Park for the first time. Tell your neighbors, tell your friends. Everyone is invited. The day will be full of music, good food, kids activities, and beer. Keep reading for all the details.

Music lineup presented by Benchmark Exteriors:

12 pm Kid Jordan and the Second Line
1:40 pm Pink Halo
3:10 pm Nester
4:45 pm Kat and the Hurricane
6:30 pm The Periodicals

Kids Activities presented by Liz Lauer and Lauer Realty

Listening Lawn presented by Ella Apartments
Bring your own chair or blanket and relax!

4:00 pm Kids of All Ages Parade led by Kid Jordan (crowns, tiaras, and festival best encouraged)

The City of Madison Water Wagon will be serving up H2O please bring your reusable water bottle or glass-free drinkware.

Food truck favorites presented by Northstreet:

El Sabor de Puebla
Just Veggiez
Melly Mell’s
Teddywedgers
The Chocolate Shoppe
Mentoring Positives

This FREE festival is completely volunteer-run. Volunteering is a great way to get to know your neighbors. There are still some volunteer slots available

To learn more about the festival and to sign up for volunteer slots, visit the Festival Page. For full information about the day’s events, visit the Eken Park Festival Facebook Event.

We’ll see you on Saturday!

rek announcements, General

August 2024 North Street Neighborhood Association Meeting Agenda

The August meeting of the North Street Neighborhood Association will be on Thursday, August 1st, at 6:30pm at Bashford Church and online via Google Meet. You can view the meeting agenda, which includes the call-in information, meeting materials, and several announcements. Note that a few items, including the meeting minutes from July, are still being finalized and will be added as they become available.

rek Uncategorized

Volunteer at Eken Park Festival

Our annual festival, Eken Park Festival, is coming up in August. Did you know that it’s an entirely volunteer effort? We’re seeking volunteers for this year’s festival, which will be Saturday, August 17th. Volunteering is a great way to support the festival and get to know your neighbors. You can sign up here. Volunteers help with setting up, selling beer, emptying trash bins, and keeping things running smoothly. We also need volunteers to help with our fantastic kids area.

A picture of a previous year's festival. In the front, a sign says "Eken Park Fest August 17th, 11am-8pm". Behind the sign are metal butterfly sculptures and yellow flowers. In the background is a crowd of people. At the top, a hot dog with mustard has a propellor and is trailing a sign that says "Now in the actual park".
rek announcements, Giving Committee

NSNA Awards Grants to Neighborhood Projects

Reminder that the July NSNA meeting is NOT in two days, it will be on July 11th. Read on for an announcement about our first annual giving process! At the May NSNA meeting, association members had the opportunity to hear from the local organizations that applied for funding from the annual NSNA Giving Process, and rank the applicants to determine the allocation of funds. The process, overseen by the Giving Committee, is how the neighborhood association gives out funds raised through Eken Park Festival to support local projects.

This year year’s awardees were:

Emerson Elementary PTO, $1000 towards the purchase of a mat for their GaGa Ball Pit.

Emerson Eken Arts, $1000 towards the 2nd Annual Emerson Eken Art Walk (September 28, 2024).

Friends of Starkweather Creek, $924 towards purchasing native plants for the park at the corner of Commercial and McCormick.

Our co-chairs joined the Giving Committee chair to present the funds to a representative from each organization. We’re so glad to be able to support all three organizations with our first round of our giving process.

Three people stand in front of the corner of Commercial Ave and North Street. The Giving Committee Chair and the neighborhood association cochair are on either side; the Emerson Eken Arts representative is in the middle with a sign for the art walk.
Two people are standing in front of a tree. A representative from Friends of Starkweather Creek is on the left; a cochair of the neighborhood association is on the right.
Three people stand right behind the Emerson Elementary School sign. From left to right are the neighborhood association cochair, the Giving Committee Chair, and a representative from the Emerson Elementary PTO. The school is in the background.