Fall is glorious time in the Ozarks

Sept. 22 marked the first day of autumn, and when you live in the Missouri Ozarks that only means that our world will only get more beautiful as each week passes.

Along with the colorful foliage, cool temperatures and Friday night football at Rolla High School, and Saturday afternoon football at Missouri S&T, fall means festivals in the Rolla area and Meramec Valley Region. Old Iron Works Days, set in the picturesque Maramec State Park in St. James is a must see and experience two-day festival held the second weekend in October (Saturday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 11). Maramec Spring Park is located 8 miles southeast of St. James on Highway 8. The cost to attend Old Iron Works Days is just $10 per car. You don’t want to miss it.

Two weeks later the Rolla Downtown Business Association (RDBA) will host the 31st Annual Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturday, Oct. 24 (9 a.m. – 4 p.m.) in historic downtown Rolla. The event coincides each year with Missouri S&T homecoming festivities. The festival, which is free, will be held on Pine Street in historic downtown Rolla. The festival will include crafts, information booths, food and entertainment. The Route 66 Marching Band Festival, hosted by the Rolla High School Marching Bulldog Brigade, will also be held on Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Rolla High School football stadium in the Bray Sports Complex.

Of course you don’t have to wait for Old Iron Works Days or the Arts and Crafts Festival to enjoy the beauty and splendor that exists all around us. There are over 305 acres of park land, and 31 parks in the City of Rolla to enjoy with friends and family. And don’t forget the 1.3-million-acre Mark Twain National Forest, Lions Club Park, Tanager Trail Ozark Nature Reserve, Lane Springs, Beaver Creek Conservation Area and the 342-acre Little Prairie Conservation Area when you’re looking for places to get away, take a hike, have a picnic, and enjoy the fall foliage.

Fall is also a time when we are all thinking about cleaning out our garages and closets and getting ready for the annual City-wide Fall Clean-up. The Fall Clean-up, coordinated by the City’s Environmental Services Department, is held the first Saturday in October on Oct. 3. Anyone interested in participating in the Fall Clean-up (residential only) is asked to please bring your items to the curb by 6 a.m. Please, however, do not bring your roll-out container to the curb for this special clean-up because it will not be picked up on Oct. 3. Examples of items that will be accepted are furniture, microwaves, televisions, old clothes, and normal household trash. Items that will not be accepted are appliances, water heaters, yard waste, tires, or construction debris such as sheet rock, shingles, concrete or rock.

Loose items should be placed in boxes or bags and small pieces of lumber should be bundled. For more information, please call the Environmental Services Department at 364-6693.

In closing I’d like to repeat the often-heard mantra throughout town to “shop local” whenever possible. During challenging economic times one of the best ways to help offset a lull in the economy is to shop locally - not only to support our local business establishments, restaurants and hotels, but to invest in the community in which you live and work.

Enjoy the great fall weather we are having, and be sure to visit the City’s Website (www.rollacity.org) for more details regarding the events and festivals listed above.

Operation Neighborhood Clean-up Oct. 2

As plans for “Operation Neighborhood Clean-up” become finalized for Friday, Oct. 2 in the Frisco Subdivision, the Rolla Area Ministerial Alliance, together with the Rolla Police Department, encourages individuals or groups to participate in this beautification effort. All volunteers are asked to attend the welcome gathering that morning at 6:30 a.m. at the Ber Juan Park baseball field concession area on 18th Street. A complimentary breakfast will be provided.

The clean-up will take place from 7 a.m. to 12-noon on Oct. 2 in a 30-block area from 10th Street to 18th Street and Bardsley Road to Farrar Drive/Holloway Street. The clean-up effort will involve tree trimming, hedge trimming, and the removal of brush piles, household items and trash. The City of Rolla Fire and Rescue will be conducting home fire inspections and replacing batteries in existing smoke detectors. The City’s Community Development Department will be offering free inspections of homes and apartments, which they have already begun offering in that area.

Operation Neighborhood Clean-up will coincide with the annual City-wide Fall Clean-up which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 3 beginning at 6 a.m.

Anyone interested in volunteering for Operation Neighborhood Clean-up should contact Chris Foster, Associate Minister at First Christian Church at Greentree, at 364-2649 or cfoster@greentreerolla.org, or Sgt. Jeremy Martens at the Rolla Police Department at 364-1213 or at jmartens@rollacity.org.

Operation Neighborhood Clean-up will coincide with the annual City-wide Fall Clean-up which is coordinated by the City of Rolla’s Environmental Services Department. The City-wide Fall Clean-up will be held the following day on Saturday, Oct. 3. If you wish to participate in the City-wide Fall Clean-up (residential only), please place all items near the curb by 6 a.m.

Examples of items that will be accepted are furniture, microwaves, televisions, old clothes, and normal household trash. Items that will not be accepted are appliances, water heaters, yard waste, tires, or construction debris such as sheet rock, shingles, concrete or rock. Loose items should be placed in boxes or bags and small pieces of lumber should be bundled.

We ask that you do not place rollout trash containers at the curb because during this special fall clean-up they will not be emptied. For more information, please call the Environmental Services Department at 364-6693.

In closing I’d like to once again thank everyone in the community for coming out and supporting Stage 3 of the 2009 Tour of Missouri elite professional bicycle race the City hosted on Sept. 9. More than 500,000 fans attended the seven-day event, which began Sept. 7 in St. Louis and ended Sept. 13 in Kansas City. To say that this event was a positive experience for our community, businesses and residents would be the understatement of the year! The state-wide, national, and international exposure this event brings to the Rolla community is tremendous, and the social, recreational, and economic impact it has had made on our community has been equally tremendous.

Early estimates indicate that 675 hotel rooms were booked the night before the Tour came through Rolla on Sept. 8 – up 25% from last year’s figures when the City hosted Stage 4 of the Tour of Missouri. Area restaurants, eateries, grocery stores, and service stations no doubt experienced significant increases at their establishments when the Tour came through Rolla and St. James the next day.

I honestly can’t think of too many other events the City could host that would generate so much excitement, enjoyment, fun and goodwill for our community. We all have so much to be proud of as a community and I will forever treasure the memories of the City hosting the Tour of Missouri two years running!

City moves forward with tight budget

If you didn’t have an opportunity to attend the Rolla City Council meeting last Tuesday, Sept. 8 when the first of two public hearings were held to adopt the City’s 2009-2010 budget, you will have another opportunity to provide input during the Sept. 21 City Council meeting.

This year’s proposed annual City budget, which is about $23 million, includes a modest but realistic projection of future sales tax revenues of 1%. Balancing the City’s expenses and revenues, without sacrificing the quality and consistency of the services our residents and business owners have come to expect, remains more of a challenge this year than in prior years. Like other communities across the state, Rolla has not been altogether immune to the national and global recession that many leading economists are now saying is over.

Granted, the sales tax revenues are not the robust 3% and 5% the City was fortunate to see four and five years ago, but there are many positive economic indicators that are pointing to a positive upward swing in our economy. Although it may be gradual, the City is seeing more construction activity both from the commercial and residential sectors that is encouraging. Business establishments along Bishop Avenue, Kingshighway and Pine Street are re-investing in their properties, facades and overall appearance, which in itself is a positive indicator that our economy continues to move forward. The momentum that is created by new businesses, development and growth is something that is difficult to directly measure, but non-the-less does create a sense that Rolla is moving forward.

As was clearly evidenced by the tremendous success of the recent Tour of Missouri Stage 3 Finish in Rolla, our community is working together today in ways that are beneficial to the continued growth and sustainability of our residents and businesses. And while it is too soon to measure the direct economic impact derived from hosting the second consecutive Tour of Missouri race in our City, there is every reason to believe that the race will have a significant impact on our economy and sales tax revenues for the month of September. What may not be as easily recognized is the positive light and world-wide reputation an event like the Tour of Missouri brings to our community.

The City continues to invest in and upgrade the infrastructure of our facilities as reflected in the newly resurfaced tennis courts at the Ber Juan Tennis Complex, the newly paved parking lots at the Rolla Recycling Center (2141 Old St. James Road) and The Centre (1200 N. Holloway Street), and many more miles of repaved streets in the City’s downtown business district and outlying neighborhoods. These upgrades not only enhance the appearance of these facilities and areas of the City, but also indicate that a progressive City is a City that is constantly moving forward, improving, and meeting the challenges of the future.

There are many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for our community such as the first phase of the multi-phase, multi-year Rolla West Project, the Ridgeview Extension, the new Arts and Entertainment District inspired by the developers of Benton Square, the first phase of the Innovation Park being planned by Missouri University of Science and Technology, the revitalization of the City’s downtown business district, and the City’s role as the regional hub in South Central Missouri for higher education, health care, dining, retail and technological advancements.

We are headed for, what I believe will be a very constructive, exciting and progressive year for Rolla in the rest of 2009 and 2010. Together, with all aspects of our community working toward the betterment of our economy and quality of life, we will all have a lot to look forward to.