River Towns Meeting and Norristown Gardens

Two things today: a meeting coming up tomorrow that I hope some of you can make, and the winners of the Norristown Garden Contest.

First of all, there's going to a Regional River Action Team Meeting in Norristown tomorrow from 6-8 pm at 700 East Main, 3rd Floor. "Regional" means there will be representatives attending from Phoenixville, Conshohocken and Manayunk as well as Norristown. These are the communities along our regional section of the Schuylkill River Trail that have teams working on developing the recreational use of the river for their residents, and to enhance the economic development of their communities by bringing users of the trail and river into their towns.

Norristown has a pretty good team, but most of its members aren't N-town residents. They're mostly people who work in Norristown and/or use the Norristown segment of the Schuylkill River Trail, and members of the Dragon Boat Club (who are trying, almost singlehandedly, to develop Riverfront Park for the use of our residents). The Norristown team meetings have so far been during the day, and therefore difficult for some residents to attend, but this meeting is more accessible, so I'm hoping more of you will come out, if only driven by curiosity about the River Towns program and what it might do for our community's economy, and the promise of light refreshments.

700 East Main is the Rolling Mills Office Building. Park in the lot beside it or across Main St. The River Towns team does ask that you RSVP, which you can do by calling 215-545-4570 or by leaving a post on the Schuylkill River Towns Facebook page.

And now, announcing the winners of the Norristown Garden Club Contest. You might remember a few months ago when I urged residents to enter their gardens in the contest. I'm please to report that the Garden Club got over 40 entries from a total of 29 homeowners (some entered in multiple categories). The amazing thing is that so many gardens made such great use of small yards and side yards. And most of these gardens were the labor of love of one or two people. You don't need a lot of property or a landscaping company for a great garden. Norristown truly is a garden spot.

Below are the winners listed on the Municipality's Facebook page yesterday. Not sure if this is everyone or not. If more are announced, I'll pass their names along.

Front Garden: 1st place, Joseph Pavidus; 2nd, Marlene Tarloski; Honorable Mention, Michelle Shuler.

Rear Garden: 1st place, Shirley Goulbourne; 2nd, the Andrew Ely family; Honorable Mention, Marlene Tarloski.

Vegetable Garden: 1st place, Lucille Chisholm; 2nd, Olga Chin; 3rd, Charlotte Greer; Honorable Mention, Elena Santangelo (yeah, me).

Window Boxes: 1st place, Mary Jane Autry; 2nd, Victoria Szam.

Container Garden: 1st place, Joseph Pavidus; 2nd, Jennifer Autry.

Public Garden: 1st place, The Norristown Bocce League flower garden at Elmwood Park; 2nd Greater Norristown PAL's vegetable garden behind their building.

You can view photos of all the winners at this link.  You don't have to be signed into Facebook to view them.