By SHAIN HAUG

Our Saturday, May 18, the “Spring Spruce Up” of our award-winning Zion Avenue trees was quite a success. We were led by Vince Mikulanis, of Davey Resource Group and the District 7 representative of the San Diego Community Forestry Advisory Board, as well as our own Sophia Frost. The work crew was not quite what we hoped it would be, but they got the work done. Mikulanis, Frost and her family, Jessica Read from our Allied Gardens/Grantville Community Council (AGGCC) board, and David Peterson with his family weeded, mulched, watered, pruned, and fertilized the trees in preparation of the coming year.

They divided into two work groups, focusing on weeding between 51st Street and Winona Avenue and between Delbarton and Cartwright streets. Mikulanis did structural and artistic pruning along the entire corridor and provided the mulch that we stretched to most of the trees. In addition to the light pruning of the new Zion Avenue trees, he pruned some of the more established trees along Zion, they look so much better! Thank you to nearby residents who offered the use of green bins, garden tools and extension cords.

Please contact AGGCC at aggccshain@yahoo.com if you would like to participate in the ongoing care of the award-winning Zion Avenue trees. Please check our website at aggccouncil.org to learn more about proper care of your trees and how to request that trees be planted on your street.

The May 28 AGGCC town hall meeting was more than a success. The 50 folks in attendance learned just how valuable the new San Diego Gas & Electric electricity pricing system can be.

Looking ahead to our next town hall meetings at the Benjamin Library (Zion Avenue and Glenroy Street) at 6:30 p.m.:

Tuesday, July 23 – The San Diego Humane Society. As successor to the San Diego County Animal Control, the Humane Society took over animal control in the city. A representative of the society will discuss their services and how to contact them for assistance.

Tuesday, Sept. 24 – Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program.

The May 16 meeting with Superior Ready Mix was unremarkable. Neither I nor anyone else in attendance had heard of any complaints about the quarry or cement/asphalt operations. I plan to review the Air Pollution Control Board reports of the most recent inspections and will report anything of interest next month.

Efforts toward the off-leash dog park continue. We are putting together a substantial group of folks to work the project. We have begun to break into the city bureaucracy (it took us a couple of weeks just to find out who to deal with) and we now recognize what a long-term project this will be. If you value a nearby legal offleash park, you can join the effort by contacting us at aggccshain@yahoo.com.

Jessica Read has been an outstanding member of our board of directors. But she is moving to Idaho and we will lose the benefit of her advice, counsel, and extraordinary energy. We are thankful for the time she was with us.

We are pleased to welcome Kim Morris to the board. Kim is a STEAM educator with the San Ysidro School District and brings us technical skills that we need to move the AGGCC into the 21st century. For the time being, she will work remotely in the limited capacity of management of the website.

The board of directors meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Benjamin Library. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, July 2. The public is welcome.

— Shain Haug is the president of the AGGCC. Reach him at aggccshain@yahoo.com.