April Actioneer Meeting Recap
We had our second EAG meeting on April 1st, with about 30 fine folks in attendance! We figured an update to all those who couldn't make it or are interested in our meetings might be a good idea, so here it goes...
We talked about our upcoming Actioneer Adventures: EAG will be leading a group mushroom hunt/hike on Chestnut Stand on Sunday, April 12th. Anyone who wants to join can meet at Price Less parking lot in Irvine at 1:00 PM.
We will be having a KY River clean up day on Saturday, April 18th to help prep for the Speedy Spore River Run. Anyone who wants to help can find us under the Irvine bridge from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM. We will take a break, then head over to the Kentucky River Park & Recreation Center (off of Wisemantown's Crossing) from 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM. We will have a cookout at 5:00 PM at the Kentucky River Park to thank all the helpers!
EAG will also be participating in Bluegrass Green Source's Main Street Sweep on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22nd from 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, on Main Street in Irvine. This is a great way to help get our downtown in tip-top shape for the Mountain Mushroom Festival on April 25th & 26th!
We will have a booth at the Mushroom Festival to hand out information about the group, as well as inform the community about fracking and how that could potentially impact our community. This will be a great time to reach out to the community to get people excited about the resources we can utilize here in our beautiful Estill County home.
Sunday, April 26th is our Speedy Spore River Run! Registration time is from 10:00 AM until 11:30 AM. There will be a safety meeting at 11:30 AM, then the 6 mile race will begin at 12:30 PM, and the 12 mile race will begin at 1:00 PM. If anyone is interested in helping us at the booth or at the race, please let us know! Or if you'd like to register for the Speedy Spore River Run, visit www.mountainmushroomfestival.org for all the information.
During the very first meeting, we handed out slips of paper for people to write down their ideas and visions for Estill County. We divided those answers into four groups and presented them at this meeting: Local Foods/Gardening; Beautification; Recreation/Activities: Community Development/Businesses. We decided to focus on the Local Foods/Gardening & Beautification topics at this meeting. Some of the ideas that were listed were the possibility of starting a community garden, supporting the farmer's market, collaborating with the extension office to do educational programs, and encouraging restaurants to buy local through more events like last year's Farm Fresh Friday event. We also talked about ways to encourage people to responsibly dispose of their trash and start recycling. There is a free "Living Green" class at the Extension Office on Earth Day, April 22nd at 6:30 PM that will provide participants with a free recycling bin, so that would be a great place to start!
We talked about planting flowering trees or bushes along roadsides or throwing flower bombs, but the group decided the first thing that needs to be done is to contact the State or County road departments to ask that they stop spraying the roads with the weed killers.
EAG will meet again on May 6th at 6:30 PM at the Extension Office. We will talk about the big ideas we have in the Recreation/Activities and the Community Developement/Business realms then!
The month of April is shaping up to be a busy one for the Estill County community. The Mountain Mushroom Festival is an excellent event for our town and is such a great way to showcase our beautiful home and unique heritage. We hope that you'll join us in our Actioneer Adventures and help us make our home even more awesome!
