Thursday was a busy day, shopping for flowers and filling the pots. I like buying locally grown flowers for our outdoor planters. There are cheaper places to buy the flowers, but over the years, I’ve noticed a difference between cheap flatbed flowers from a hardware store and locally grown flowers. The locally grown, like these in the greenhouses of Wickman’s garden will grow much bigger and better in the upcoming months.

Just in time for our holiday party — a chance for all the tenants to get together and have lunch. Lunch was catered by the Traveling Chef — Spanish meatballs, tomato mozzarella salad, brownies, and Russ’s mom’s wassail punch!

Dr. Julie Penick, Family Nurse Practitioner at Penick Healthcare and Rose Lombardo, Certified Natural Health Professional invite anyone interested to attend the following seminars for free:

Supporting the Immune System with Nutrition – An Educational Program on the Benefits of Enzyme Therapy in Cancer Care

LIBRARY CENTER
4653 S. Campbell, Springfield

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Harrison Room
6:30 – 8:00 PM

Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Harrison Room
6:30 – 8:00 PM

Saturday, October 29, 2011
Harrison Room
1:00 – 2:30 PM
4:00 – 5:30 PM

LIBRARY STATION
2535 N. Kansas Expressway, Springfield

Monday, October 17, 2011
Fresno Room
6:30 – 8:00 PM

POLK COUNTY LIBRARY
1690 Broadway, Bolivar

Thursday, October 27, 2011
McDaniel Room
6:00 – 7:30 PM

Saturday, October 29, 2011
McDaniel Room
9:30 – 11:00 AM

Sponsored by: High Way Ministries (a health ministry)

On Thursday, representatives from the Springfield Branch Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and SCORE, “Counselors to America’s Small Business,” will be available for individual consultations at the Springfield Library Center in the Business Resource Section at 4653 S. Campbell, near Sam’s and the new Academy Sports

The consultation will be from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. This is a drop-in, free event. No appointment necessary.

Small business owners and those seeking to purchase or start a business are encouraged to come by the center and visit privately with these representatives.

Information will be available concerning SBA loans, free small business counseling and training, and other SBA programs.

The Springfield-Greene County Library also offers several business services, including many business publications and online business tools, a quarterly “Minding Your Business” newsletter, and a Business Librarian Kelly Miller who is available for consultations and orientations to the Library’s business services. For an appointment, call 883-5341 or email Kelly here.

The 1st anniversary of the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center will be celebrated the weekend of October 14-16, 2011 featuring these great events:

Botanical Center Garden Party and Concert – enjoy a full day of music on the outdoor stage on Saturday, October 15, Noon-7 p.m.

Free concert featuring visitors from our Sister City Tlaquepaque, Mexico – Mexican recording artists Luna Sureste, Paco Padilla, and Shelia Rios. Also featuring local musical artists Amber Norgaard, Kellswater, Queen City Cats, and M-Dock Band.

Also enjoy these other weekend events:

• NatureGrounds and Playtrail Equipment
• Guided walks
• Visit the Japanese Stroll Garden
• Visit the Gray-Campbell Farmstead
• Register for Tablescapes “Formal Feast” (Friday)
• Register for a Bonsai Workshop (Sunday)
• Flute Concert with Bettine Clemen (Sunday)
• Solar Tram Tours

Sponsored by the:

Botanical Gardens and Complex

Springfield-Greene County Park Board

Friends of the Garden, Inc.

University of Missouri Extension

Springfield Sister Cities Association

in the Nathanael Greene Park
2400 S. Scenic Ave.
417-891-1515

The three-day festival runs from 5:30 – 10 p.m., Friday night; 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday; and 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults; $3 for kids 12 and younger; and toddlers two years of age and under are free.

This year’s highlights include:

• Opening ceremonies on Friday night with a children’s gathering comprised of hundreds of local Kindergarten-through-sixth grade elementary students, who were invited as ambassadors to represent their classes from every Springfield public elementary school;
• Professional sumo wrestlers, one of which is a world champion (www.sumobyamba.com);
• Traditional Japanese candy artist (www.candymiyuki.com);
• Taiko drumming group Osuwa Taiko, from St. Louis (www.stltaiko.com);
• Traditional Japanese top spinner Hiroshi Tada, from St. Louis;
• Local martial artists groups, including those with sword demonstrations; and
• Local musical group who will travel to Japan in 2011

The festival also hosts daily tea ceremonies in the lakeside tea house, nightly candlelight strolls through the garden, hands-on activities for children, presentations by local performers, authentic Japanese food and regional artisans and merchants. A large tent top market features Japanese souvenirs and apparel for sale, with all proceeds benefiting SSCA and the Japanese Garden.

Poster design by Pam RuBert

Last week was the grand opening of Springfield East Jazzercise at 2732 E. Chestnut Expressway, right next to Subway at the corner of Cedarbrook and Chestnut, and we’re really jazzed up about having a great place to work out only a couple of blocks away.

The center offers lots of classes throughout the day (included early morning!) with a variety of instructors. There are several classes on weekends too. For a full schedule, go to the Springfield East Jazzercise class schedule webpage.

Heat Advisory Days

When the National Weather Service issues heat advisories for the Springfield area this summer, the Springfield-Greene County Park Board will offer the following each day the advisory is in effect:

• If on Tuesdays through Sundays, Grant Beach Park Outdoor Pool, 833 W. Calhoun St., will remain open until 8 p.m.;
• Chesterfield Family Center Indoor Pool, 2511 W. Republic Road, will remain open until 8 p.m., during heat advisory days;
• Cooling Centers: Citizens are welcome to visit the lobby areas of Chesterfield Family Center, 2511 W. Republic Road, Doling Family Center, 301 E. Talmage St., and Mediacom Ice Park, 635 E. Trafficway, during their normal business hours during heat advisory days;
• Gillenwaters Tennis Complex, 3635 S. Jefferson Ave., will leave outdoor tennis courts lighted through 11 p.m., during heat advisory days;
• Perry Tennis Courts, at the corner of Bennett Street and National Avenue, will leave outdoor tennis courts lighted through 11 p.m., during heat advisory days.

Other Ways to Cool Off

• There are seven Outdoor Pool locations to choose from. Grant Beach & Fassnight Park Pools are open Tuesdays – Sundays. Doling, Grant Beach, Westport and Silver Springs Park Pools remain open through the month of July with extended Friday and Saturday hours from 5:30 – 8 p.m. ($1 or canned food item). Fassnight and Meador Park Pools have the same 5:30 – 8 p.m. extended hours on Saturdays. There is a Pool location within the system open seven days a week. A direct link to aquatic information is available at www.parkboard.org/info/aquatics.
• The Ozarks Stream and Fountain at Jordan Valley Park, 735 E. Trafficway, runs 10 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. daily for 30 minutes at the beginning of each hour, and continuously from 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. each day.
• The water feature at Founders Park, 330 E. Water, is a hands and feet-only feature

A full list of park locations is available at www.parkboard.org and the main Park Board Office number is 417-864-1049.

The area was closed in mid-June so crews could do work on the U.S. 65 bridge to expand the highway to six lanes. Work required on structures under the bridge deck made it unsafe when trucks, RVs, and other tall vehicles attempted to pass underneath Chestnut Expressway.

Previously, transportation officials announced Chestnut could be closed until August 1, but now the goal is to reopen the road by Friday morning rush hour, the Missouri Department of Transportation said in a news release.

MoDOT estimates that 23,000 to 25,000 motorists drive on Chestnut Expressway under U.S. 65 each day, and during the temporary closure, those drivers had to find different routes to their destinations.

The early re-opening of the underpass that is only a few blocks away from the RDI Building is good news to our tenants and their clients –thanks to good weather, MoDOT, and highway contractor, Emery Sapp and Sons of Columbia, MO.

Installation of the Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) began late September 2010. The new equipment includes 16 electronic message signs, 27 traffic viewing cameras and 31 wireless traffic detectors embedded in roadways. The new traffic cameras may help drivers avoid backups and gridlock in Springfield, MO.

The new 11,500-square-foot facility was built and equipped for $3.2 million, with about half of that cost coming from federal earmarks and the other half coming from state and local funds. It is a partnership project between the City of Springfield and the Missouri Department of Transportation. Construction on the center began in January 2010. The Transportation Management Center of the Ozarks located 1111 W. Chestnut Expressway inside the Springfield Public Works Operations Center complex that was dedicated at a ribbon-cutting Wednesday, April 13.

Initially, the new TMC will provide “real time” oversight of the joint MoDOT/City signal system — more than 250 traffic signals and 42 traffic-monitoring cameras. Included are seven cameras positioned along I-44 in Greene, Webster and Laclede counties. (The state-city traffic management operation has been located in rented space since 1998. The first location was in The Discovery Center.)

The new TMC of the Ozarks is designed to expand its capabilities to remotely manage signals in other communities in MoDOT’s 12-county Springfield Region who choose to become a TMC partner, and it’s the nerve center for the Advanced Traffic Management System that will control the new equipment located along major City and MoDOT arterials and freeways.

The new TMC contains an 845-square-foot training room, which can function as an operations center for transportation emergencies or planned events, such as the temporary closing of a major roadway for construction.

The TMC of the Ozarks was designed by Esterly Schneider and Associates Inc. of Springfield, with construction by Denali Construction of Springfield.

For more information, contact Jason Haynes, Co-Interim Traffic Engineer with the City of Springfield, at (417) 864-1167, or Adam Humphrey, traffic operations engineer with MoDOT, at (417) 874-2177.