City to pick up yard waste in the alley and will begin leaf pickup

Saturday, Cathy and I went to Jump Creek Falls, south of Homedale, for a short hike and some scenery. For those of you who may not know about Jump Creek, there are several trails that can be explored. The easiest is straight up the canyon along Jump Creek to the Falls. It is only about a half mile hike round trip along Jump Creek with lots of small waysides where the creek has carved holes in the volcanic rock, making the hike short but interesting. At the end of the trail, you find yourself in a bowl-shaped area with a stark but beautiful 60-foot waterfall and pond.  

 The other trails take you on top of the canyon to see the canyon and falls from on high. Either way, from below or above, it is well worth the short trip.

 Last week, I talked about the Blue Cross of Idaho Community Health Academy. As you may remember, the Academy taught that health has much to do with other factors than just genes, exercise, and healthy food choices. It also involves (1) Economic Stability, (2) Educational Access and Quality, (3) Healthcare Access and Quality, (4) Neighborhood Built Environment, and (5) Social and Community Context. Since there was too much to tell you about in one week, let’s continue this week.  

 Food security was the next topic covered in the Academy. Prior to the session, I was assigned to find the food sources available in our community. 

 This is an area where Weiser shines. In addition to having a fine supermarket, there are other discount stores that sell food. Also, there are three food banks consisting of Love, INC, the Catholic Church, and WICAP as well as the Idaho Food Bank distributing food monthly at the Cornerstone Church.  Moreover, the Senior Center provides Meals-on-Wheels and lunches on a regular basis. We are blessed both to have food availability to meet all needs here in Weiser and to have the people who make food availability possible.

 The next discussion was around the walkability of a community.  The speaker Mark Fenton was introduced as the “Michael Jordon of walking.” Much of the information was covered in the training at the Vendome this spring sponsored by Southwest District Health in which a fair number of community members attended.  

 As you might expect, making the community easier to walk and bike contributes to the physical health of the community. As you might also expect, some of the suggested changes would involve more expense than the City budget can afford, at the moment. However, over time the city may be able to implement the suggestions in a prioritized fashion.  

 The City has already implemented many good features, like ADA ramps on major walkway street corners, sidewalks required for new construction or significant remodels, new sidewalks leading to Weiser Middle School and grocery shopping. 

 The City also will be putting in new sidewalk from Weiser High School to downtown and Memorial Park next spring. In the meantime, there are a few simple improvements that can be made, like painting crosswalks in a vertical bar pattern for driver visibility.  

 The last session had to do with communications and how the City tells its story.

 The next step in this process will be sitting down with the Blue Cross Foundation to talk about a Weiser project to promote community health.  I reached out to the hospital to get their suggestions. There will be more on this later.

 Now, on to City business. Since we have had the first frost of the season, it is time to clean out the garden. For those of you with an alley behind the house, if you place the yard waste in the alley and out of the way of the garbage trucks, the City crew will come through and haul it off for you. This free service will start Monday on the east side of town. So, be sure to get the yard waste in the alley quickly to take advantage of this service.  

 Also, as the leaves have started falling, the city crew will soon be going around to pick up the leaves for free. Simply rake the leaves into the street next to the curb. If you do not have a curb, rake the leaves onto the asphalt on the street. Since the City uses a vacuum to collect the leaves, any other foreign objects may damage the impellers. Please make sure there are only leaves in your pile.  

 Well, that’s it for this week. Hope you are having a great fall and taking advantage of this great weather!