Mentelle Neighborhood Association
Lexington, Kentucky
At 9 a.m. Saturday (Oct. 27) we will be working on the median bed at the Cramer end of the street to remove forsythia and plant replacement shrubs and daffodils. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Please contact Ray or Jill DeBolt at chalfont@juno.com if any questions.
Thanks to everyone who organized and came out this evening for the annual neighborhood picnic. A big crowd enjoyed delicious food, fellowship and fun. Special thanks to: Grill master Eddie Owens; guitarist Andres Cruz; harpist Elaine Cook; and hayride driver Gil Dunn. With hayrides, a stilt-walking balloon-maker and a fire engine, the kids had an especially good time.
Leftovers: Several items were left behind (see photo at the end of the slide show). Items may be picked up on the porch of 52 Mentelle Park.
The annual Mentelle Neighborhood picnic, postponed earlier this month because of rain, is Sunday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the Cramer Avenue end of the Mentelle Park median. The weather forecast now looks great! Let’s hope it stays that way.
The Mentelle Neighborhood Association will furnish hamburgers and hotdogs (cooked by grill master Eddie Owens); please bring your own drinks and a side dish to share. There will be music and special activities for kids. Everyone who lives in the neighborhood is encouraged to attend.
Officers and board members will be elected for the coming year, and members will hear from Ashland’s new principal, Shannon Blackburn.
Please email President Ann Olliges (annolliges@gmail.com) with suggestions for any topics you would like to discuss at the meeting.
A nominating committee is now putting together a slate. If you are interested in placing your name in nomination for a seat on the board or for president, vice president, secretary or treasurer, please email Secretary Tom Eblen (tomeblen@gmail.com).
The board has approved two changes to the bylaws, which will be voted on by the membership at the meeting. One changes the membership meeting requirement from two to one per year, to conform with actual practice in recent years.
The other bylaws change alters membership requirements to allow long-term renters in the neighborhood to become members. Currently, only property owners may be members of the association, although all residents are encouraged to attend all neighborhood activities and events.
Here is the exact language. Please email board member Bethany Baxter (BethanyBaxter@gmail.com) with any questions:
CURRENT LANGUAGE:
(II) Meetings
1) Biannual meetings of the membership shall be held in the spring and fall of each year. At the fall meeting, the membership shall elect officers and directors to serve for the following year.
PROPOSED LANGUAGE:
Any individual person, family, partnership or corporation owning property in the area in Lexington, Kentucky, bounded as follows: Main Street (north side), Walton Ave (east side), National Ave (both sides), Mentelle Park and Memory Lane (hereinafter “Mentelle Neighborhood”); or
Any individual person, family, partnership or corporation who has resided in or operated a business as a tenant within the Mentelle Neighborhood for a continuous period of one (1) or more years.
Membership is limited to one (1) per address, but is not limited to one (1) per property.
Any individual person, family, partnership or corporation who owns, resides in, and/or operates a business in more than one (1) address within the Mentelle Neighborhood shall be limited to one (1) membership.
Membership is automatically terminated when a property is sold, and/or upon termination of tenancy in the Mentelle Neighborhood address.
(II) Meetings
1) Annual meetings of the membership shall be held in the fall of each year. At that meeting, the membership shall elect officers and directors to serve for the following year.
To read the bylaws in full, go to the Bylaws tab on Mentelle.org.
The annual Mentelle Neighborhood picnic, postponed Sunday because of rain predictions, has been rescheduled for Sept. 30. It will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the Cramer Avenue end of the Mentelle Park median. The Mentelle Neighborhood Association will furnish hamburgers and hotdogs; please bring your own drinks and a side dish to share. There will be music and special activities for kids. Everyone who lives in the neighborhood is encouraged to attend.
Today’s annual Mentelle Neighborhood Picnic has been postponed because of rain expected this afternoon from Hurricane Florence. Next weekend’s forecast doesn’t look good, either. The MNA board will decide on a new date later this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
The annual Mentelle Neighborhood picnic will be Sunday, Sept. 16, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the Cramer Avenue end of the Mentelle Park median. The Mentelle Neighborhood Association will furnish hamburgers and hotdogs; please bring your own drinks and a side dish to share. There will be music and special activities for kids. Everyone who lives in the neighborhood is encouraged to attend.
Willie Davis will read from his novel, Nightwolf, at 6 p.m. Thursday (Aug. 30) at Brier Books, 319 S. Ashland Ave. Click here for more information. Willie is a winner of the Katherine Anne Porter and Willesden Herald International Short Story prizes. His work has appeared in Salon, The Guardian, The Kenyon Review and other publications.
Jeff Worley’s latest poetry collection, Lucky Talk, also is available at Brier Books, where he gave a reading Aug. 14. Worley, an award-winning poet, has published nine previous collections and edited What Comes Down to Us: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets, which included a forward by another Mentelle neighborhood resident, Ed McClanahan.
Both Willie and Jeff live on Aurora Avenue, as does Brier Books co-owner Samantha Sipple, a poet and short-story writer.
Mark your calendar for two important Mentelle Neighborhood events. More details to follow:
A celebration of her life is planned at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Singletary Center, 405 Rose St.
Holly, a visual artist and art teacher, was active in the neighborhood. She will be greatly missed by her friends and neighbors.
Holly moved to Mentelle Park in 1978, renting the house of a family friend. It was in front of that house her father had proposed to her mother, she said in a Herald-Leader article in 2000. In 1986, Holly bought the house next door and lived there the rest of her life.
“I laugh and say I was meant to be in Mentelle Park,” she told reporter Bettye Lee Mastin.
For more information about Holly’s life, read this Herald-Leader news story and her obituary. Memorial contributions are suggested to Lexington’s Central Music Academy or Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra.