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SubscribeIn preparation for the Brightside Community-Wide Planting Day on November 5, Brightside will be partnering with several local garden centers to host plant sales in support of Brightside programs and initiatives.
“Keeping our city clean and green is truly a community-wide effort,” Brightside Director Gina O’Brien said. “We are grateful to these local nurseries for their partnership and ask Louisville residents to support these local businesses so Louisville can add more green to their yards while supporting Brightside at the same time.”
Portions of sale proceeds will be donated to Brightside to support their clean and green initiatives. Participating nurseries and sale details are as follows:
- Plant Kingdom (4101 Westport Road): 20% of tree sales from October 26 through November 9
- St. Matthews Feed & Seed (225 Chenoweth Lane): 10% of all sales on October 29 & 30, November 5 & 6
- Tower View Farms & Nursery (12523 Taylorsville Road): 20% of all tree sales on October 29 & 30, November 5 & 6
- Ken Mulch (2708 Outer Loop): 10 % of all sales on October 29 and November 5
- Frank Otte Nursery and Garden Center (12902 Shelbyville Road): 20% of all plant and plant material sales on October 29 & 30, November 5 & 6
- Frank Otte Nursery and Garden Center (2930 Bardstown Road): 10% of all sales on October 29 & 30, November 5 & 6
- Idlewild Butterfly Farm (1100 Logan Street): 10% of all sales on October 29 and November 5
For more information on the Fall Plant Sale, please visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/brightside/fall-plant-sale
To sign up as a volunteer for the Community-Wide Planting Day event in Parkland on November 5, please visit https://louisvilleky.wufoo.com/forms/brightside-volunteer-interest-form/
Louisville Metro Government will begin this week installing locally created, low-cost wireless smoke detectors in vacant and abandoned properties, in an innovative way to reduce fire risk.
The city’s Innovation Delivery Team is guiding this one-of-a-kind project, with support from Louisville Fire, the Vacant and Public Property Administration, and Codes & Regulations.
The smoke detectors, which use a cellular 3G wireless connection to alert authorities when a fire erupts in a vacant and abandoned property, were created through a partnership with local civic hackers. The idea is to avoid devastating fires and protect homes located nearby.
“This project represents the best of what ‘Smart City’ technology can be for Louisville,” said Grace Simrall, Chief of Civic Innovation.
“This innovative technology is the result of the local tech community and Metro Government working together to solve a real problem for residents living near vacant properties. We want innovation and technology in our community to benefit all of our residents, and this pilot project is a step in the right direction.”
Fires in vacant and abandoned properties tend to cause greater damage because they’re not reported as quickly as blazes in occupied homes. The fires often spread to neighboring occupied homes. The issue of fires in vacant and abandoned properties is particularly pronounced in Louisville Fire’s District 1, which includes parts of west Louisville.
Using Louisville Fire data, the Office of Performance Improvement & Innovation found that 44 percent of the fires in Fire District 1 that became “involved” (2 or more structures) between 2012 and 2015 started in a vacant property.
Seeing an opportunity to innovate a solution, Louisville Metro Government enlisted help from the maker space LVL1, which in turn hosted a hackathon of local civic hackers and makers.
Civic hackers Nathan Armentrout, James Gissendaner and David Jokinen developed the product and software to run it, with an end cost of $150 per smoke detector, which are expected to work for up to 10 years.
“This new, innovative tool will provide quicker alarm notifications to fires at our city’s vacant properties,” said Laura Grabowski, director of the Vacant & Public Property Administration. “With this technology, we hope to contain these fires and provide more safety for neighbors of vacant properties. This project would not be possible without the teamwork of multiple Metro departments and the civic hackers who created the wireless smoke detectors.”
Louisville Metro is looking for someone to donate the large Christmas tree that will stand in Jefferson Square Park through the holidays.
“It is always the main attraction of our Light Up celebration,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “We hope someone will come forward with just the right tree.”
The tree should be a spruce or fir, about 40 feet tall and well-shaped. The city will cut and transport the tree to its prominent spot at the plaza in the northwest corner of 4th and Jefferson Streets. Anyone interested in donating a tree should call MetroCall 311. The tree donor will be thanked at the Light Up Louisville sponsor reception on a date to be determined.
Light Up Louisville is held annually on the day after Thanksgiving. This year, the event, in its 36th year, will be held on Nov. 25.
Central High School today unveiled The Colony maker space, the school’s new home for its proposed Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) Innovation magnet program and the centerpiece of its partnership with the University of Louisville J. B. Speed School of Engineering.
In addition to helping create a college-bound culture for underrepresented students, the partnership and maker space aim to encourage more female and minority students to pursue engineering and science studies.
“Think of this as a 21st century shop class, where students can design, and create, and bring their ideas to fruition,” said Central Principal Raymond Green.
Green added that students in the STEM program will study a wide range of foundations – coding, robotics, engineering, even hacking – to give them the skills they need to succeed in an increasingly technology-driven world. The goal, he said, will be for them to graduate from Central with a patent or trademark in their name.
“I’m particularly proud of how student-focused this space is, from the technology and equipment that will be the new norm for students as they continue to study and hone their skills, all the way down to the name they selected for their area,” said Dr. Donna Hargens, superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools. “ ‘The Colony’ is not only a play on Central’s mascot, but a fitting term to describe the teamwork, innovation, and hard work that will go one here.”
The center also creates a foundation for the school’s strong partnership with Speed School. In addition to providing Central with up to five scholarships per year, the engineering school will allow qualifying high school seniors to take freshman-level college classes; will sponsor robotics tournaments and hack-a-thons at the center; and will help write the STEM Innovation curriculum.
“Our goal with these maker space facilities is to increase interest in the STEM fields and to help students grow their self-confidence,” said UofL Acting President Neville Pinto. “Expect to see our Speed School students here working alongside Central students on engineering projects.”
The space is being furnished with $30,000 of prototype furniture gifted from student-focused furniture maker Artcobell and $20,000 of innovative equipment, including 3D printers, laser cutters and robot fields, funded by a Verizon Innovation grant.
The unveiling was held in conjunction with a national conference highlighting dual-credit courses and college partnerships. Central was selected for one of the breakout sessions of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment (NACEP), to showcase how dual credit opportunities can effectively create a college-going culture for minority students. Two dozen attendees visited Central to learn about its deep partnerships with UofL.
“We know that high quality dual credit can have a powerful impact on students’ postsecondary success, yet fewer opportunities are available to students in the nation’s large urban school districts. Even when those opportunities are present, they tend to be available only to select students in relatively well-off schools,” said NACEP Executive Director Adam Lowe. “We hope that the partnership between the University of Louisville and Central High School will inspire others to commit to developing dual credit opportunities for students who will benefit the most from these programs.”
The results are in. Louisville’s own Slugger Field has been declared the winner of the Best Triple-A Ballpark in the US for 2016.
The contest, held by Ballpark Digest, ranked fields in a bracket style tournament. Then, fans were given the opportunity to vote for their favorite in each round. Over 14,000 fans voted for their favorite ballparks throughout the tournament.
The final round, came down to Louisville Slugger Field and Indianapolis’s Victory Field. In a narrow margin of 51% to 49%, Louisville won.
A complete list of all fields with rank as well as the results for each round of voting can be found at Ballpark Digest.
Louisville is one of five cities selected by national funder Living Cities and the Government Alliance on Race and Equity to join an effort, Racial Equity Here, to improve racial equity and advance successful outcomes for all in America’s cities.
“Louisville is a compassionate city, dedicated to offering each and every individual the opportunity to reach their full human potential,” Mayor Greg Fischer said. “We have taken many steps to improve our city through innovation and regular analysis of our daily work and are focused on system-wide change.
“Racial Equity Here will help us develop even more tools to address disparities that seriously affect individuals across our community. We look forward to further advancing racial equity here in Louisville and taking a lead in closing the opportunity gap.”
Louisville will join Albuquerque, Austin, Grand Rapids, and Philadelphia as part of this effort.
Government leaders in each city will complete a racial equity assessment of their core government operations. This assessment will include an intentional focus on operations as they relate to adults and youth of color aged 16 to 24, who are disproportionally out of school or work.
By understanding how and where municipal operations affect young people of color, governments will not only better understand their role in perpetuating disparities but will also begin addressing them in transformative ways. Over a two-year period, the jurisdictions will develop a blueprint of government-wide strategies and begin executing the skills, tools and processes they develop through this work.
The cities participating in Racial Equity Here were selected based in part on a demonstrated commitment to improving racial equity and improving outcomes for young people of color, and to expanding efforts across the breadth of outcomes that government influences.
A cross-functional team of Louisville government leaders, led by the Office of Performance Improvement & Innovation (OPI2), submitted the application to participate in the initiative. The Center for Health Equity, Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods, Office for Globalization, Departments of Community Services and Human Resources and the Human Relations Commission will all participate in the 24-month cohort, alongside OPI2. Continue reading
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville Division of Fire Chief, Colonel Gregory W. Frederick celebrated the promotion of 11 members to new positions within the Louisville Division of Fire. We wish them the best of luck in their new roles!
See below for members promoted and their new positions:
- Sgt. Michael Davis – Fire Apparatus Operator
- Sgt. Michael Enyard – Fire Apparatus Operator
- Sgt. Jelen Greene – Fire Apparatus Operator
- Sgt. James Perry – Fire Apparatus Operator
- Capt. Thomas Anderson – Company Commander
- Capt. Darrell Davis – Company Commander
- Capt. Jason Sanders – Arson Investigator II
- Capt. Chris Wahl – Company Commander
- Maj. Lawrence Graves – Battalion Chief
- Maj. Chris Jenkins – Battalion Chief – Chief of Investigations
- Maj. Chris Verdi – Battalion Chief
