Congratulations to Jenna Stephens, vice president, and Cyndy Storm, secretary, who will complete the 2010-2011 term on the RCC executive commitee.

The RCC executive committee:
Rebecca Munnerlyn, president
Jenna Stephens, vice president
Betty Guess, treasurer
Cyndy Storm, secretary
Michele Huggins, S. Kilbourne Neigborhood Assn., president
Bessie Watson, Edisto Court Neighborhood Assn., president
Travis Wheeler, RCC past president (ex-officio)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (June 17, 2010) – A press conference will be held on Monday, June 21, 2010 at 10:00am at Rosewood Market (located at 2803 Rosewood Drive). The press conference will serve as the official kickoff of the “Lose the Baggage” campaign.

“Lose the Baggage” is a new joint initiative between Keep the Midlands Beautiful and the City of Columbia Climate Protection Action Campaign that seeks to reduce the amount of plastic bags used by Midlands residents by at least seven million bags a year, which would represent roughly one out of five of residents making the switch from plastic to reusable bags.

Mayor Bob Coble, Columbia City officials, representatives from Keep the Midlands Beautiful and the City of Columbia Climate Protection Action Campaign, and residents from the Rosewood community will be in attendance at this kickoff press conference.

Through the Lose the Baggage website and Facebook pages, residents will take the “Lose the Baggage” pledge to reduce the number of plastic bags they use.

Between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Less than one percent of these are recycled. The large majority of these bags end up in our landfills, or even worse, as litter. Keep America Beautiful’s Litter in America study reports that 5% of all plastic bags are littered.

This fall citizens are also encouraged to show their support on October 18-24, 2010, which will be designated as “Lose the Baggage” Week. Throughout this week, participating retailers will team up with Lose the Baggage to promote reusable bags by offering incentives to shoppers.

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Hamilton-Owens Airport Conference Room

Planning & Development Services Department will present to City Council the results of an evaluation of the condition of every single- and two-family structure within the City limits. “This work,” said Marc Mylott, “reviewing more than 28,000 structures, neighborhood by neighborhood, is based upon the requirements of the International Property Maintenance Code. We began this critical work, with the assistance of USC graduate interns, because the department had no baseline of existing conditions. As such, staff could never quantitatively determine whether or not code enforcement efforts were leading to improvement. Equally important, this work allows us to assess our allocation of resources (size and extent of inspector territories) and the inspectors to know where they need to focus their efforts.”

You can access the report via the following link (link fixed 11:30 am 2/3/10):
http://www.columbia.sc.gov/tasks/sites/coc/assets/File/Dev_Services/Housing_Study/PDS_RSPMA_2009_Cover.pdf

Use the last page of the above document — the table of contents — to download additional parts of the report (the main report and/or appendices). Because of the size of the document, it had to be divided into several parts.

Keep the Midlands Beautiful (KTMB) has requested assistance with developing a list of areas that have recurring problems with litter, dumping, etc.. KTMB frequently receives phone calls from groups of volunteers that are looking for a community service project. With a “running” list, KTMB can quickly put these groups on trouble areas.
Please list by street and block number or other identifying means. Remember to include waterways – banks of creek, river or stormwater ditch or culvert that runs through neighborhood, etc. This may also include several blocks/streets within a neighborhood where trash accumulates along the roadside or right-of-way.
KTMB Director, Heidi Johnson, will contact the neighborhood leader as she assigns projects to 1) to ensure the location is still in need of attention ; and 2) ensure the President is aware of the project and can notify neighborhood that they will see volunteers in a particular area on a certain day.
We would appreciate hearing from you by next Tuesday, 5/25. Thank for your help!
Ms. Gerry Lynn Hall
City Council District 3 – Community Liaison
803.545.3381
1225 Lady Street, 1st Floor
Columbia, SC 29201
glhall@columbiasc.net