View our current Newsletter - Platteville
Transcription
View our current Newsletter - Platteville
The Arboretum News Our mission is to create a community-based arboretum for the purposes of education, recreation, conservation, and the cooperation within the Platteville community. Message from the President S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 MPO Rountree Trail Design/Construction Planning Under Way Delta 3 and IIW were selected by the City Council, with input from the MPO Steering Committee, to lead the design and construction of the ‘Moving Platteville Outdoors Rountree Trail Project’ to pave, light and enhance the Rountree Trail. First, I’d like to thank the Platteville Community Arboretum Board of Directors for electing me their President for the 2015-2017 term. It is such an honor to be elected as your next PCA President. I am humbled that you would place your faith and trust in me. This is a responsibility that I do not take lightly, and I will endeavor to represent the PCA with the utmost transparency and boldness. As the new president my first action will be to thank the former members of the Board of Directors for the PCA. For serving numerous years in maintaining the Rountree Trail, Dick Bonin, has been a reliable source through his hard work and sweating dedication to make the Rountree Trail a solid addition to the Platteville community. I can not begin to count the number of times we called Dick knowing we could count on his endless drive. Dick will be missed. I also want to thank Bev Loy for the years she continued on back OFFICERS Ric Genthe - President Frank Steck - Vice President Katherine Burk - Secretary Julie Pluemer - Treasurer Amy L. Delyea-Petska - Executive Secretary BOARD of DIRECTORS Mark Hirsch Evan Larson Tom Nelson Mike Penn Jen Schweigert Gene Weber Robin Fatzinger - Past President, 2013 - 2015 Ric Genthe - Past President, 2011-2013 Kris Wright - Past President, 2005 - 2011 David Canny - Past President, 2004 - 2005 608.778.1131 [email protected] www.plattevillearboretum.org PO Box 302 • Platteville, WI 53818 Pictured, Julie Neebel, IIW Project Manager for the MPO Project, makes a point in a design meeting. L-R Gene Weber, PCA/ Steering Committee/MPO Chair; Howard Crofoot, City Public Director; Julie; Dan Dreessens, Delta 3 Project Manager; Noah Hofrichter, IIW Engineer; and Tom Nelson, PCA/MPO Steering Committee. Howard, Tom and Mike Penn (not pictured) - PCA/MPO Steering Committee make up the committee providing direction to Delta3/IIW group for the Design/Construction phase. Design plans are being developed and discussed with the DNR. When finalized, a firm construction plan will be set. Construction is expected to begin in 2015 and be completed in 2016. MPO Project Ground Breaking At 4PM Wed April 1st, the official ground breaking of the trail project to pave and light the Rountree Trail was attended by over 60 people. The history of the trail was narrated by Angie Wright; and Gene Weber summarized the collaborated leadership effort lead by the Platteville Community Arboretum, Platteville Community Fund, Building Platteville and the City of Platteville. The assistance of Representative Tranel and Senator Marklein along with the DNR represented by Peter Biermeier. Robin Fatzinger recognized the 20 organizations leading specific fundraising projects. Duane DeYoung thanks the 12 local business fundraisers while Angie Wright shared appreciation for the residential brochure distribution team. Gene shared: “Without the entire community’s efforts, this would not be happening - Thank you.” And Tom Nelson ended the program by requesting everyone to stop by a local contributing restaurant for dinner or your favorite contributing retailer to buy that something you need. Pic: L-R Tom Nelson - PCA/MPO Engineering PM; Dick Bonin - City Council; Mike Denn - City Council; Brian Stuart - MPO Fundraiser; Duane DeYoung - Building Platteville/MPO Local Bus. Fundraising Leader; Mike Olds - Building Platteville; Jen Schweigert - PCA Raffle Leader; Peter Biermeier - Wi DNR; Gene Weber - PCA/MPO Chair; Howard Marklein -Wi State Senator; Travis Tranel - Wi Representative; Mike Jansen - IIW; Cindy Tang - PCF; Larry Bierke - City Manager; Dan Dreessens - Delta 3; Katherine Burk - PCA; Angie Wright - PCF/MPO Grant Writer; Nate Curry - PCF President; Evan Larson - PCA; Mike Penn - PCA/MPO Engineering PM; Robin Fatzinger, PCA Past President; Barb Stockhausen - City Council. Photo by Gary Tuescher. School District Employees joins effort to help Match the MPO Tang $25,000 Challenge – only $4,283 to go! The MPO Steering Committee is pleased to announce that the Platteville School District has provided their board, staff and faculty the opportunity to make a donation to help pave, light and enhance the Rountree Trail in the name of the Platteville School District. Those individuals donating $100 or more will get a yard continued on inside It all started some 18 years ago when David Canny and Martin Dawson formed the Friends of the Rountree Branch (FORB). Officially FORB was an ad hoc sub-committee of the City of Platteville’s Parks and Recreation Department.This volunteer group secured DNR funding and trail easements to begin construction of the Rountree Branch Trail (RBT). Over the next several years, FORB, the City, UW-Platteville, local businesses, and many, many volunteers worked together to construct approximately 1 mile of gravel trail along the Rountree Branch stream. The first section, or Phase 1, was the short jaunt between Chestnut Street and State Highway 80/81. Phase 2 completed the trail segment between State Highway 80/81 and Valley Road. In 2002, educational signs were installed along the trail through a cooperative project funded by the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Amazingly, all of FORB’s activities were funded through WI DNR grants and donations from community members and organizations. In The Beginning! In 2002 members of FORB began talking about formalizing the group and expanding the vision to include a community arboretum. However, this would not be a traditional arboretum; this arboretum would be linear and would follow the Rountree Branch stream with the RBT as its backbone. The Platteville Community Arboretum, Inc. (PCA) was started in 2004 to provide a new range of additional resources to the community that would be associated with the trail and stream (i.e. gardens, natural areas, recreation, etc.) The PCA is an independent, nonprofit community organization that fully supports its operation and projects through membership fees, private and corporate donations, grants, and volunteer efforts. Although independent, the PCA maintains a close working relationship with the City of Platteville which allows both organizations to take advantage of a broader range of resources to enhance Platteville’s Rountree Branch Trail corridor. In 2005 the City and PCA partnered to conduct a surfacing pilot study. Two segments of trail were surfaced with cold mix asphalt and two segments were surfaced with recycled asphalt. Neither segment held up well. The recycled asphalt has essentially reverted to something resembling gravel, while the cold mix asphalt was slightly “wavy” when installed and has cracked and buckled in many areas. As these were only meant as pilots and were not intended to be permanent, the installation of a long-term, uniform surface remained a vision for the future. In 2012 the City and PCA began talking about needed infrastructure improvements for the trail. The following three projects were identified as highest priority: 1) replacing the failing bridge between Novus and Culver’s; 2) rerouting the trail around the stairs behind Fastenal; and 3) completing the off-road connection to the Platteville Dog Park portion of the trail. In December 2012, the City offered a $50,000 challenge match to PCA to complete the three high priority projects. PCA named the projects “3 for $100K.” PCA did fundraising for the “3 for $100K” projects and successfully raised just over $50,000 to meet the challenge and secure the City’s match. During fundraising PCA was repeatedly asked by residents and business owners about plans to pave and light the trail. The City and PCA developed a tentative plan for completing the trail improvements in phases; beginning with completing the “3 for $100K” projects, followed by paving, and finally lighting the trail as funding allowed. However, after talking with several funding agencies and foundations the City and PCA were convinced the project would be more attractive to funders as one large project. They also learned that adding lighting after paving presented construction concerns as well as being difficult to fund. Based on these discussions and research, PCA and the City decided to use the existing funds as match to leverage additional funding from other sources. To sign-up: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/rountree-spree-10k-run-tickets-15662665454 Event Details This is not your average 10K, it will be a challenging and all terrain race along the scenic Rountree Branch. You will run on grass, gravel, pavement and possibly some mud! Park your cars at Mound View park and we will bus you to the race start on the UW- Platteville campus. You will run through part of campus and then connect on the trail and make your way back to the park for the finish line. Check in and waiver signing from 8-9 a.m., transportation to start leaves at 9:05 a.m. sharp, and the race begins at 9:30 a.m.. If weather is extremely bad and it is unsafe to race, we will cancel the event by email and posting an announcement on our facebook page at 8 p.m. the night before the race. There will be no rain date if the event is cancelled. Event Registration includes Custom Rountree Spree Nike DriFit Cotton T-Shirt! Sign up by April 11 to guarantee a shirt! All proceeds of the event will help fund the Platteville Community Arboretum (PCA) Trail Pavement Project. Come out and enjoy the Rountree Branch Trail and help us reach our goals to improve the trail! $25.00 Registration fee includes a nike drifit t-shirt and snacks Are you interested in learning about nature by spending time along the Rountree Branch Trail? Would you like to learn about fishing, native trees and plants, and how to build a bird feeder? If so, sign up to attend Platteville Community Arboretum’s Nature Camp at Rountree Branch. Please register at the Recreation Office, but make checks out to the Platteville Community Arboretum. The registration deadline is June 12, 2015. FEE: $20 • GRADE: 3 - 6 LOCATION: Mound View Park DATE: July 13 - 17 TIME: 8:30-11:30am 2 Moving Platteville Outdoors Rountree Trail Project The Moving Platteville Outdoors effort grew out of a $50,000 challenge grant from City of Platteville aimed at smaller piecemeal solutions to the Rountree Branch Trail’s existing infrastructure problems. As work was being done to raise funds to meet the challenge, a grander vision for the community to delay the smaller projects and use the initial challenge to leverage additional funds took focus and Moving Platteville Outdoors (MPO) was launched in late 2013. PCA quickly determined that this grander vision would require a community-wide collaboration to lead the project. Most of the matching funds for the “3 for $100K”project had come from the PCA membership and Platteville residents. For MPO to succeed, donations from local businesses and grant funding needed to play a significant role. The first step of the plan fell into place when a local philanthropist provided PCA with funds to hire a grant writer. The MPO community collaboration was put in place with the PCA, City of Platteville, Building Platteville, and the Platteville Community Fund leading the way. In April 2014 the City of Platteville submitted a grant request to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Stewardship Program for MPO. In August 2014 the DNR awarded the City $642,692. Moving Platteville Outdoors was the only project in our region to receive funding. This great opportunity to leverage state and federal funds along with the collaborative MPO leadership has pulled the entire community together to support the MPO project. Local businesses, service organizations, and other groups held numerous fundraisers over the course of 2014 (See article on page 4 for a full list). Well over 1,500 residents and more than 50 local businesses have donated between $10 and $30,000. Through these fundraisers, grant writing, and many, many donations MPO has raised $614,000 in matching funds for the $642,692 in grant funds received through DNR. Delta 3 Engineering and IIW are currently completing the surveying and design work for MPO. The construction plan is not yet finalized, but construction will start later this year and be completed in 2016. Thank you to all who have contributed or helped in any way. MPO is truly a remarkable community collaboration that shows just how much we can accomplish when we work together. 3 Moving Platteville Outdoors Major Donors $100,000 + (Trail Section Sponsorship Sign - Limit 3) • City of Platteville • WI DNR Stewardship grants $50,000 + (Naming Rights to Bridge - Limit 3) • UWP Foundation via donor $25,000 + (naming rights to a special tree Limit - 5) • Cindy Tang Charitable Fund • Platteville Development Group • Federal Recreational Trails Program $15,000 + (naming rights to a Kiosk - 4) • Woodward Foundation • Platteville Community Fund $10,000 + (naming rights to a bench - 10) • People for Bikes Foundation • Livingston State Bank • Edward Jones and the Reeves Family and Friends/Nutrition World Staff and Customers $5,000 + (naming rights to a mile marker - limit - 13 maxed out • Alliant Energy Foundation • Runde Auto Group • Bob and Barry Brodbeck • Rotary of Southwest WI- Platteville/Rotary Foundation • Dupaco Credit Union • Ubersox Auto Group • Wisconsin Bank and Trust • Gene and Jan Weber • Heartland Credit Union • Southwest Health • Innovative Ag Services/ Land O’Lakes Foundation • Tricor Insurance • L&M Corrugated Container Corp • Bob Digman $2,500 + (naming rights to a light pole - many) • Vassen-Pluemer CPAs • Platteville Dental • Avalon & Millennium Cinema • Momentum Bikes • Bev Loy • Mound City Bank • Platteville Optimists (Morning) • Pizzaria Uno • Dairy Queen/Country Kitchen/ Sigwarth Family • UW-Platteville Advancement Division Employees 2014 • Platteville Regional Chamber Above are recognized with permanent name plate on entrance kiosk. $1,500-$2,499 (name plate on kiosk plaque for 5 years) • Brothers • Matt Melby • Life Line Video & Audio Technologies • Eastman Cartwright • John Deere Dubuque Works $1,000-$1,499 (name plate on kiosk plaque for 3 years) • Eric Cleveland Agency • Century 21 Southwestern Reality • Medical Associates of Platteville and Cuba City • Culvers/Bruce and Caroline Kroll • Michael Seitz Memorial • Doug Rogers • Myron and Sheila Tranel • Driftless Market • Pioneer Ford/WI Automobile and Truck Dealers Assoc. • Faherty • Platteville Main Street • Honkamp Krueger & Co • Snowbusters • Louise Brockman • Lislie Financial $500 - $999 (name listed on kiosk for 3 years) • Bill Kloster/Deb Rice • Stephen VanDeWeil • Carley Borcherding • Thom Geyer • Eva Marie Beining Memorials • Badger Brothers • Gobin Allion Flooring • Sherwin Electric, LLC. • Tom and Karen Heiser • TC networks of Dubuque • Jaycees • Walmart • KFC • Dunkin Donuts • Mark Hirsch • Paul Wantschik • Bill’s Plumbing . . . school district sign along with helping the School District gain recognition on a Trail entrance kiosk with the many other collaborating organizations. School district donations are elligable for the $25,000 of matching funds from Cindy Tang available thru the residential fund raising campaign. Initial school district employee donations have driven the match amount to $20,717 leaving only $4,283 to go. Over 300 residents have contributed since the initial trail fundraising began – above and beyond those buying raffle tickets, brats, soup dinners, etc. These special educators are definitely collaborating to make good things happen for our youth and our community. PCA has a long history of collaborating with the school district team providing PCA Leadership opportunities, summer nature camps, environmental library, and maintaining the trail for use by track and cross country athletes and others getting in shape for their sports as well as the use of the trail, stream and our keystone wetland areas for biology and other school studies. Balance needed to fully match the DNR Award of $642,692 is now below $28,000. Contributions of any amount can be mailed to the Platteville Community Arboretum, PO Box 302, Platteville, WI 53818 noting “MPO” in memo. Contributions are also being received online at plattevillearboretum.org/MPO. The PCA is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, making contributions tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Other MPO Rountree Trail Fund Raising Project Efforts Several businesses and organizations held trail paving and lighting fundraisers to include the following: Building Platteville Soup Suppers – The Building Platteville Board held two soup supper fundraisers. MCB Dress Down – every Friday in September. Barb Winkler and the Mound City Bank team fundraiser. Fidelity Bank 2 Brat Sales - Mike Moran’s team at Fidelity grilled brats. Livingston State Bank Brat Sale Doug Martin’s team had a brat sale raising $500. PCA Community Service Auction hosted - Platteville High School & UW-P Students Worked Together To Help Raise $1,380 for the Rountree Branch Trail Students from the Platteville High School Swim Team, Cross Country Team, Key Club, UW-P CERES Women’s Fraternity, UW-P Green Campus Organization and many other students/ organizations offered a variety of services from lawn raking, shoveling snow, washing windows to detailing and washing your car that were auctioned off. There were also many other items to bid on such as tickets to the Nov. 5th UW-Madison Basketball Game held at the Kohl Center, an 18-Hole Round of Golf with UW-P’s Basketball Coach, Jeff Gard at the Platteville Golf & Country Club, Fighting Saints Tickets and more. Beth Frieders, Amy Seeboth and Denee Hirsch led this event. PCA Raffle $6,210 was raised for matching funds in a raffle led by Jen Schweigert. Raffle tickets were sold through Mound City Bank, Benvenutos, Elks, Mound City Bank, many Optimists and PCA board members. Our thanks to all organizations that donated gifts: • UW-Platteville Foundation: Box Seats, Food and Drinks for 8 for the 11/15 Football Game vs UW Oshkosh • Momentum Bikes: Trek 7.1 FX Bicycle • Snap Fitness: One Year Single Membership • Mark Hirsch: 20x20 “That Tree” Matted & Framed - Limited Edition Print Photo of Choice; “That Tree” Collector’s Edition Book and 10x10 Numbered Print; “That Tree Book” Autographed Copy • Dairy Queen: 1 Small Blizzard a Month for a Year; 1 Small DQ OJ Smoothie a Month for a Year • Kwik Trip: 2 - $25 Gift Cards • Mary Ann Shultz: One Hour Massage • Platteville Community Arboretum: 5 One Year Memberships • Platteville Main Street Program: 2 Cases of Avista-Esterline Joni Brugger is planning Potosi Root Beer employee fundraising events at this time. PCF Community Campaign - The Platteville Community Fund facilitated the residential fundraising drive. In October, they distributed information throughout the community about Moving Platteville Outdoors Rountree Trail paving, lighting and enhancement project. Information came to residents in and around Platteville via an informational door hanger – 5000 were distributed. Cindy Tang pledged to match up to $25,000 contributed by residents and to date over $20,000 has been raised. Tour de Trail - Another trail fundraiser ($200) and Healthy Activity Event sponsored by SWHC, PCA, UWP Health Promotions and others! 58 people participated. Platteville School District: shared MPO info with all faculty, staff and school board members allowing them to donate in the name of the school district if they so choose. Donations are currently coming in. UW-Platteville Society of Pre-Health Students’ Trivia Night: is being held Wednesday 4-15-2014 to benefit the “Moving Platteville Outdoors” project. This past fall the PCA held a raffle to raise funds for the trail. With the support of the local community, PCA board and others we were able to sell 403 tickets. After cash prizes were awarded we took in $6210 for the trail! The PCA board would like to thank again the community groups that helped us sell tickets and the local businesses that donated the prizes necessary to make this raffle a success. It was a fun event and participants got to know the trail better. They chose from a series of events (a group walk, jog, bike ride, walking yoga, or boot camp) led by UWPlatteville Health Promotion majors. All ages and experience levels (including kids!) participated in the events followed by lunch and live music. Bargain Nook Discount Day - Raised $50 thanks to Tracy Wiegel and Lynn Johnson Wonder Wash hosted a fundraiser for the Moving Platteville Outdoors: Rountree Trail Paving, Lighting, & Trail Enhancement Project on November 22, 2014. 50% of the proceeds that day went toward the fundraiser resulting in $132. Wild Sanctuary Massage Offered Massages and raised $100 for the trail – Thanks to Hannah Adams JustGive.org brought well over $1000 for the trail. This was an initiative started by Amy Seeboth-Wilson UW-Platteville Advancement Division Employees 2014: Dennis Cooley’s team joined together and contributed $2500 – individual students donated up to $180 individually. Platteville Regional Chamber Hometown Hog Roasts were the projects that helped the Chamber raise/pledge $2,500 for the trail. Message from the President has spent giving numerous volunteer hours to improving the Rountree Trail. Her hard work was seen by the enthusiasim and allegiance displayed while working the trail and serving the board. Thank you! To Robin Fatzinger, our Past President, I hope to follow Robin’s zeal and determenation to move the trail forward as it was achieved during her 2013-2015 term. As a fulltime teacher and mother she was always able to find the time needed to carry onward with the plans and goals set by the board of directors. Her hours spent and served will always be warmly appreciated. With Robin, now acting as Past-President, and Kris Wright, (President 2005-2011), I am confident the PCA will continue growing knowing that their wisdom and knowledge will be available for all of us to draw from. Optimists – internal membership fundraiser and donation $2,500 Finally, and equally most important, I offer a big “Thank-You” to our donors, who have been extraordinarily generous through the years. It is the donations and the spirit of the Platteville citizens from which the PCA gathers the strength and blood to reach our goals in serving the community we are all proud of. Platteville Main Street Root Beer Sales project generated $1000 Rotary Club raised $5000 via grant requests, pie sales and other fund raisers. Thank you, Ric Genthe 4