What’s Up in Boise Heights - Spring 2024

 

Weed Warriors 2024 – Adrian Pfisterer

 

Have you ever been walking one of the fine trails in our neighborhood with your dog and s/he pulls up limping?  Or get a flat when riding your bike?  And it turns out the offender is the ubiquitous, infamous, and hated goathead weed (aka puncture vine)?  If not, you can thank a group of volunteers in the neighborhood that spend a few hours each summer trying to keep the goatheads at bay on popular trails like Powderhouse and Elephant Rock and Morley’s Canyon. We are a loosely organized group that adopt an area to patrol and spend a little time killing goatheads so that others don’t suffer because of them.

Our collective gratitude goes out to Don and Maria Essig, Jane Buckthal, Jeff Fereday,  Kay Hummel, Sheila Hennessy, Jim Guiffre, Susan Abdo, Teri Muse, Jolene Schow, Jennifer Brown, Ax Yewer, Mallory Clark, and Bruce Harrold for volunteering their time to help keep this noxious weed taking over. (apologies if I’ve missed anyone)

We are always open to new helpers!  Please email me at adrian@pfamily.org or call/text me at 208-484-2302 if you’d like to get involved. It's literally just a few hours a summer and is a great motivator to get out early on hot summer days.

BHNA Web Site – Jane Buckthal

Boise Heights Neighborhood Association website is up and running.  Instead of emails you can come here when you are interested. Check it out at BoiseHeightsNA.org.  Our website contains information regarding ongoing projects in our neighborhood, important contacts at Boise city and in our neighborhood, and pictures of plants and weeds in our area. Contact us through the contact form on the website if you have any suggestions or additions.

Chip Sealing – Kay Hummel

Ada County Highway District (ACHD) will be chip sealing streets north of the Boise River this summer, including our neighborhood. Work starts after Memorial Day. To track the daily progress and when work will be in Boise Heights, use this link: https://achd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=25619c6cc1c84fc0b07d146d20b4c756

Sign Toppers – Don Essig

We have a new logo/sign topper design and ACHD approval of that design, we are still waiting for their approval of sign locations. Stacy Seyb and I met with John Wasson, Assistant Traffic Engineer for ACHD whose signoff is needed, on March 13th to visit locations in ACHD right-of-way. The result was that several of our initially proposed locations were shifted – primarily to street corners where ACHD signposts already existed rather than at our NA boundary. A revised map was provided to John on March 18th.

Please check our web site for the revised locations and any updates on approval. We are in our third year of the grant and are obliged to finish up this year.

Being Fire Wise – Terri Muse

Please take time to review the preparing your home for wildfire risk information pamphlets included with this Spring Neighborhood Newsletter.  As a certified Firewise USA Neighborhood, we have access to great information on protecting your home against wildfires.  If you have any questions about making your home wildfire safe, please contact BHNA Firewise contacts Susan Abdo  susangabdo@gmail.com or Terri Muse tlmusejd@gmail.com.

For many years BHNA has participated in a neighborhood-wide spring chipper program sponsored by the City of Boise.  This program has offered homeowners a way to take wildfire reduction efforts around their home and have the materials picked up curbside at no cost.  We have learned that due to staffing changes, this annual program is temporarily on hold.  It is anticipated that there may still be an opportunity to offer the service this spring. However, we have not yet secured a firm date.  We will keep you posted via email when the chipper dates are set.

Annual Meeting

Our annual meeting is set for September 22^nd this year, the last day of summer. Planning is underway and we are considering a “block party” format this year. Watch for updates on our website and contact planning committee if you have ideas or would like to help (bruceaharrold@gmail.com)

Boise City Development Code

After many years of public involvement and proposed changes, a new modern city code was adopted by City Council last spring and went into effect on December 1st last year. One of the many revisions was a new development permit process to reduce transactional time by all involved. Here is a view of the Development Process Flow Chart.

Part of that overhaul is a new online development tracker (Development Tracker | City of Boise). This tool makes it easier to find projects near you, keep abreast of their status and provide comments to city planners. One nice feature is the ability to search by Neighborhood Association boundaries. Remember, the best way to influence development is to interact early and often with city planning staff.