April 2021 Updates

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A Word From Peoples Gas Regarding Streets and Sidewalks

Neighbors have been concerned about the conditions of the streets and the sidewalks in many parts of Sauganash Park. We contacted the Ward Office and they contacted Peoples Gas. Here is the response from Peoples Gas:

“We know there is a lot of restoration work to do and it will be starting soon.

KS hopes to get out to Pulaski & Devon area to begin concrete restoration as early as next week or the following, waiting on some construction work to wrap up.

The plan will likely be to work from North to South, starting on Keystone from Devon to Granville and pick up what is available along Pulaski just east from Devon to Granville as well. From there we would work our way over to Karlov from Granville to Glenlake and finally KS will move one block west to Kedvale from Glenlake to Peterson.

Once the concrete crews get rolling we expect this work to move along quickly. Soft restoration won’t happen until transfers/cutoffs are completed likely in mid-May.”

Praying Mantis Egg Sign-Up Continues

Each spring the SPCA delivers praying mantis eggs to members on our distribution list. These eggs are placed in backyards throughout Sauganash Park and provide natural mosquito control. We have ordered the eggs and plan to distribute soon. If you are an SPCA member and would like us to deliver praying mantis eggs to your home this spring, sign up here.

Earth Day Cleanup Event Scheduled

The SPCA is planning an Earth Day cleanup event on Saturday, April 24th at 9 AM. Neighbors will meet at the underpass by Granville and Lowell. A second group of volunteers will also meet at the same time on Glenlake and Keystone to clean the other trail. The alderman’s office will provide us with additional garbage cans for the event. Let’s hope for great weather!

“Slow Down, Children Playing” Signs Available

Alderman Nugent has “Slow Down, Children Playing” yard signs available to 39th Ward neighbors. If you would like a sign for your yard, you can pick them up at 4200 W. Lawrence Avenue, Monday-Friday from 9 am to 5 pm.  You can also request a sign by calling 773.255.4498 or via email at [email protected].

Spring General Meeting for the SPCA

The SPCA holds a General Meeting annually on the third Tuesday of April. We invite all interested community members to attend. Our Spring General Meeting will be held by ZOOM this year on April 20th at 7 PM.

Congressman Mike Quigley from the US House of Representatives will join us. Also Jenise Celestin from Sweedish Hospital will share the latest information about vaccinations for Covid-19. She will also teach us how to get vaccinated.

Here is the link to the meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87516110095?pwd=bW54QklnL1VEOTBkc0JOOFEyK0VVZz09

Meeting ID: 875 1611 0095
Passcode: 744745
Phone: +13126266799

We hope that you can join us!

March Updates

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Request for Feedback on Snow Plowing

Members of the SPCA board are interested in gathering community feedback on our snow plowing operations. We want to hear from you. Are you happy with our current performance? Should we make changes to the program? How can we improve? Please let us know.

Praying Mantis Egg Sign-Up

Each spring the SPCA delivers praying mantis eggs to members on our distribution list. These eggs are placed in backyards throughout Sauganash Park and provide natural mosquito control. If you are an SPCA member and would like us to deliver praying mantis eggs to your home this spring, sign up here.

39th Ward Public Safety Meeting

Alderman Nugent is hosting a virtual community safety meeting on Tuesday, March 23rd at 6:30 PM. She and Chicago Police from the 16th and 17th Districts will answer questions and address safety concerns. You may submit questions before the meeting to [email protected]. You must register in advance to attend the meeting: https://bit.ly/30ORlGA

SPCA E-Neighborhood Watch Program Update

We now have nearly twenty volunteers for our E-Neighborhood Watch program. If you have a camera system on your home, you may sign up here. If you experience crime in our neighborhood, you can request camera footage here.

Spring General Meeting for the SPCA

The SPCA holds a General Meeting annually on the third Tuesday of April. We invite all interested community members to attend. Our Spring General Meeting will be held by ZOOM this year on April 20th at 7 PM. I will share the link to the meeting with you as the date approaches.

Congressman Mike Quigley from the US House of Representatives will join us. Also Jenise Celestin from Sweedish Hospital will join us. She will share the latest information about vaccinations for Covid-19. She will also show us how to get vaccinated.

We hope that you can join us!

Don Morton
SPCA President

Snow Plows Dispatched

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We try to avoid calling for private snow plows. The service causes a lot of frustrations for our neighbors and depletes our treasury. Due to record snowfall, however, we have once again called for private snow plows. They should arrive in Sauganash Park by 10 AM to clear the center of our streets.

NO End-to-End Clearance

We are NOT asking our neighbors to coordinate the movements of their cars. This is because we are not plowing the streets end-to-end this time. The plows will simply come through our neighborhood and clear the center of our roads. We hope that this allows residents and service providers to freely enter and exit our neighborhood.

The SPCA and The Economics of Snow Plowing

The SPCA Board is a group of neighborhood volunteers. We work to make our neighborhood a better place, and we do so because we care. Sometimes we fail to meet the expectations of our neighbors. That is ok. We invite these neighbors to volunteer as well if they feel that they can help us improve.

We are charged hourly by the plow company. Last time we called we were charged for 25.5 hours. They charge us a rate of $225 an hour. So the last snow plowing job cost our association nearly $6000. That’s the amount in membership dues that we receive from 200 households!

Our funds are provided by our members. There are around 750 homes in Sauganash Park. Just over 200 of these homes have joined our association during 2020-2021. Barely a quarter of the families in Sauganash Park are dues-paying members. Our membership cycle runs from July 1st to June 30th. Please consider joining for 2020-2021 if you haven’t already.

Remember that we are all neighbors. If you see a neighbor struggling in this weather, and you have the energy to help, please do. We are in this together. We will get through this together.

Thank you!

Don Morton
SPCA President

Some Updates from the Neighborhood

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Snow Plow Updates

We try to avoid calling plows, but when cars get stuck in the street, it seems like the right thing to do. We called for plows this weekend, and they helped us get out of the snow. Unfortunately, not all our neighbors received the same level of service. I apologize directly to our neighbors on Kildare and Glenlake, who seem to have received the worst service. I know how frustrating it is to follow a plan, do your part, and still experience a service failure.

We have taken action to avoid this in the future. The problem was caused by a new driver and the unique layout of our streets. If we call for plow drivers in the future, we will provide them with these maps, which show optimal routes for clearing east and west streets and north and south streets. Next time we will prepare our drivers to succeed.

Update on Our E-Neighborhood Watch

Our E-Neighborhood Watch program has seen an uptick in neighbor participation. Here is a general coverage map, which shows the approximate locations of our volunteers.

If you have cameras on your home or business, and would like to volunteer for our program, you can sign up here.

Here is how the program works:

1. If you witness or are victim to a criminal offense in Sauganash Park, you can request camera footage from your neighbors here.

2. We (the SPCA) will receive your request.

3. We will check it against our index of neighbors who have volunteered to help.

4. We will relay your request to neighbors nearby and ask them for footage.

5. They may choose to share their footage. If they do we will send it to you.

We hope to spread greater awareness of this program. As the weather gets warmer, crime in our area usually increases. I suspect this year will be no better. We should prepare in the ways that we can. Please participate if you are able by volunteering or educating your neighbors about our program.

Participatory Budgeting

SPCA board member Iram McGill has been tirelessly representing our neighborhood in the 39th Ward Participatory Budgeting Process. Alderman Nugent created this program, which allows community members to spend some of the ward’s discretionary menu money. Last year, voters chose to get our underpass at Lowell and Granville repaved.  Now it’s time to vote for this year’s projects.

I don’t want to influence your voting. I just want to give you some sample projects that are on the table this year:

A Left Turn Lane at Devon and Pulaski

Improvements to the Baseball Diamonds at Sauganash Park

Bus Stop Benches at Pulaski and Rogers/Sauganash Ave

There are 22 total project proposals from across the 39th Ward. Let’s make our voices heard! All votes must be cast by February 12th. There are only 9 days left to vote. Register to vote now!

Thank you for being a part of this community and contributing in the ways that you do!

Update on Snow Plowing

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Our friends at American Snow Removal have concluded their work in Sauganash Park. We believe that the operation was largely successful.

We also found some spots where we can improve. The East and West streets did not get plowed according to our schedule. Also, some areas of some streets did not receive complete end-to-end clearance. We apologize to those affected.

In the future we will provide our drivers with maps of our neighborhood clearly detailing our blocks and boundaries.  By communicating more effectively with drivers, we will lessen our reliance on dispatch to convey all the necessary information.

Parking in The Learning Experience Lot

Our neighbors at The Learning Experience, located at 4110 W. Peterson, have generously offered to share their parking lot with us in case of another weather related emergency.  However, they ask that we keep the space in front of the building open, so that parents can drop off their children. Also, it’d be neighborly to reserve spots close to the building for the teachers. Again, it is so nice of them to share the lot with us in such a time. Let’s try our best to respect their needs.

Thank You!

A blizzard on-top of a pandemic is uniquely stressful. Yet, it was great to see our community come together and handle the problem. People made sacrifices. They shoveled out snow-blasted cars. They cleared alley entries and drive-way openings multiple times. It was a lot of hard work, but it felt pretty good seeing it happen too.

Thank you so much for being a part of our community and contributing in the ways that you do!

Snow Plows Dispatched to Sauganash Park

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Calling private snow plows to clear our streets is a heavy expense, so we try to only call when necessary. Today, it appears to be necessary. We have already called for snow plows. They are headed to Sauganash Park immediately to clear the center of our streets. 

End-to-End Street Clearance

 

Initially, the snow plows will clear the center of our roads so that cars can enter and exit our neighborhood. They will return tonight to plow our streets end-to-end.

The streets running east and west (Glenlake, Granville, Rosemont) will be cleared from midnight till 8 AM. Please remove your cars from those streets overnight. This will allow the plows to clear from end-to-end, so that we may easily park on the street once again.

The streets running north and south (Keystone, Karlov, Kedvale, etc.) will be cleared from 8 AM tomorrow morning until noon. Please remove your cars from these streets at those times so that the streets can be plowed from end-to-end.

Please help us by notifying your neighbors who may not receive our emails about these plans.

Thank you!

2020 Holiday Decorating Contest

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The SPCA is happy to host our annual Holiday Decorating Contest for 2020.

This year, instead of asking for donations from local restaurants, we are buying gift cards from them. We are supporting those who have helped us in the past. We are also supporting establishments that are new to our neighborhood.

Sauganash Grill

The Alarmist

Chai Asian Bistro

East of Edens

Himshikar

To make this year the best year yet for our contest, we are awarding more winners than ever before.

Make sure that you have renewed your SPCA membership for the 2020-2021 cycle. Only current SPCA members are eligible to win.

 

SPCA Holiday Contest PDF

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