Mentelle Neighborhood Association

Mark your calendars!  The long-awaited neighborhood tree walk is set for 9 a.m. Saturday, June 26.

Arborist Stacy Borden, the University of Kentucky’s grounds manager and president of the nonprofit Trees Lexington, will lead the walk.

Stacy can advise us on how to protect our old trees, expand the canopy and support pollinators; he’s an expert on everything from what and how to prune to the public-health benefits of urban trees.

If you want Stacy to see and advise on a certain site or tree/s, email me (jamiedlucke@gmail.com) and we can build the walk around your questions.

Even if you don’t have any tree-planting ambitions, join the walk. Stacy is knowledgeable and personable, and our neighborhood trees in full leaf are a force to behold.

Watch this space for where we will meet to begin the walk.

 

Mentelle neighborhood residents wanting to have a yard sale are encouraged to have it Saturday between 8 a.m. and noon.  We are promoting the event with signs and on social media to draw a bigger crowd.

Anyone with yard sale-worthy items they would like to donate to a community table, with proceeds benefitting the Mentelle Neighborhood Association, should bring it to the north end of the Mentelle Park Median between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and help price and display.  Some pinwheels and balloons will be available there for families wanting to use them to attract attention for their individual yard sale.

The Mentelle Neighborhood Association board will have its regular monthly meeting (third Wednesday of each month)  at 7 p.m. Any MNA member is welcome to attend. This is our first in-person meeting in many months, and it will be at the new Walker Properties offices off Walton Avenue in the Warehouse District. Enter the driveway between Willis Klein and the Rag Peddler.  It is Suite 150.

The MNA board has set Saturday, June 19, from 8 a.m. until noon, as the time when Mentelle Neighborhood residents are encouraged to have their spring/summer yard sales. We will promote the event on social media and set up signs and pinwheels to help attract customers that day.

If you don’t want to have a yard sale but have high-quality items you want to get rid of, you may donate them to a community yard sale booth that will be set up in the Mentelle Park median. Proceeds from from that booth will go to the neighborhood association treasury for future MNA projects and activities. If you plan to donate items, please email Ann Olliges.

So start cleaning out your closets, garages and basements; it’s time to turn all of that clutter into cash!

A note from Jill and Ray DeBolt, the Mentelle Park Median Committee chairs:

A huge thank you to all those who worked on the Mentelle median over this spring and on our workdays, May 15 and May 22. The following neighbors contributed a total of more than 60 hours of sweat equity to keep the median beautiful:

Jill and Ray DeBolt
Gil Dunn
Tom Eblen
Janet Howard
Susan and Jerry Janecek
Tom Lillich
Barbara Wagner
Shirley Warren
Logan Wilson

A special thanks to Logan Wilson, who donated a large amount of mulch, and to Gil Dunn for providing the trailer to haul the mulch.

Based on a lot of good feedback from neighbors, the MNA board has scheduled a community yard sale day for Saturday, June 19, from 8 a.m. until noon. (While anyone can have a yard sale anytime they wish, organizing it as a neighborhood-wide event at a single time allows us to do some marketing and attract more customers.)  More details to follow.

 

From Jill DeBolt, Mentelle Median Committee chair:

Thank you to all those who came out last Saturday to work on the Mentelle median. We put in a total of 36 work hours weeding and edging the beds and removing some invasive plants.

This Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon, we need help spreading mulch to keep the weeds down and the beds looking good.  Any and all help is greatly appreciated, even if you can only help for a short time.

Please email Jill DeBolt if you have any questions or concerns.

Efforts to improve the appearance of the Mentelle Park median — a city park where we have many of our neighborhood activities — aren’t new. In fact, they have been going on for more than a century. The widow of bourbon distiller James E. Pepper, who lived at 9 Mentelle Park, organized this effort, which was mentioned in the July 30, 1910 issue of the Lexington Leader.

Lexington government is sponsoring a hazardous waste collection event on Saturday, May 22.  The Mentelle Neighborhood Association will help coordinate a neighborhood pick-up and delivery of  hazardous waste products from your homes and garages. This service will allow you to free-up your Saturday so you don’t have to wait in line to drop off your waste!

On Friday, May 21, you may drop off one box load of any of the hazardous waste products on this list at the Ashland Elementary School parking lot between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.  We will take this load to the drop off center on Saturday. Please note:

• This service is limited to members of the Mentelle Neighborhood Association.  If you are not a member but live in the neighborhood, we request that you join our Association or pay $15 cash when you make the drop off.
• Please limit your load to one medium-size box.  Many families will want to participate, so please be reasonable.
• You must limit your items to things on the list.  Do not ask for exceptions.  Please be sure items are well sealed so they will not spill.
• This is a first-come, first-serve service.  Once the pickup truck is filled, we will cease taking items.

Looking for a good book?  Come look through the boxes on the porch of 52 Mentelle Park (if it’s not raining).  There are slightly damaged new books and advance reader copies for all ages. Enjoy!