FREE Home Energy Squad Visits & Zero Interest Loans

For a limited time, the City of Minneapolis is offering free Home Energy Squad visits for income-qualified residents, including renters. All Minneapolis residents are eligible for a $70 home visit -- and to qualify for a FREE visit, your home must have an income of less than $48,100 for one person, $54,950 for two people, $61,850 for three people, or up to $90,650 for eight people. During a Home Energy Squad visit, a team of energy experts evaluates energy saving opportunities in your home and installs free materials to help you start saving on the spot, including door weather stripping, a water heater blanket, high-efficiency light bulbs and water fixtures, and a programmable thermostat.

Your visit may also include a test to measure your home for air leaks; an insulation inspection using an infrared camera; a safety check of your home’s heating system and water heater; and an “energy fitness plan” with a list of energy-saving priorities and financing information. For any recommended upgrades, participants will receive a personalized quote and an opportunity to schedule the work with a qualified contractor. And if the Home Energy Squad recommends insulation or air sealing, ALL Minneapolis residents also get special access to 0% financing to complete the work, thanks to an exclusive partnership with the City of Minneapolis. This is a limited-time offer, so don’t wait to schedule your visit! Call Beth today at 612-335-5874 or visit mncee.org/hes-mpls

Organics Recycling Training Session: October 13

Come to a training session on Thursday, October 13, 6 - 8 p.m. at Windom Park, 2251 Hayes Street NE to get your organics recycling questions answered with hands-on learning, demonstrations and tips that make organics recycling easier in your home. Learn what happens to organics once they are collected. Pick up a yard sign to promote the organics recycling program. Organics collection containers will be distributed to attendees while supplies last. 

Contact Laura Horner at 612-673-3318 or laura.horner@minneapolismn.gov with questions. Click HERE to RSVP.

Ward 1 Business Spotlight: Central Avenue Clinic

Neighborhood HealthSource welcomes Dr. Hindi Hussein to their Central Clinic this fall. With a medical degree from Howard University, Dr. Hussein is a family medicine doctor who enjoys caring for people in all stages of life. She has a special interest in pediatrics, women’s health and prenatal care. About her work, she says, “Having grown up in an underserved region, it has always been my desire to join an organization whose mission it is to provide quality health care for underserved populations.”


Dr. Hussein is fluent in Somali and English. Her philosophy of care: strengthening patients’ own advocacy for their health care, taking into account not just their health status but their whole wellbeing—job experience, living environment, overall factors in their life—and how that impacts their health. She is committed to access to care that takes into account cultural nuances with sensitivity to any socioeconomic or language barriers people may face. Outside of work, Dr. Hussein is interested in travel medicine, global health and medical mission trips. She enjoys cooking and spending time with family and friends.

Save The Date Calendar

Art Circle - Putting Down Roots
Wednesday, October 12, 5 - 8 p.m., MWMO HQ, 2522 Marshall Street NE. Create new fiber art for Putting Down Roots, an evolving artistic fiber exhibit.

Nordeast Big River Brew Fest
Saturday, October 22, 1 - 4 p.m., East Side Neighborhood Services, 1700 2nd Street NE. Sample a diverse array of micro and craft brews and sample local foods. Proceeds benefit the programs of East Side Neighborhood Services.

Riverfront Summit & Mississippi Minute Film Festival
Monday, October 24, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd Street. View the winning entries of the Film Festival and celebrate the centrality of the Mississippi River. For tickets, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mississippi-minute-film-festival-2016-tickets-27969448373.

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For reasonable accommodations or alternative formats please contact Lisa Brock at lisa.brock@minneapolismn.gov or 612-673-2201. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to call 311 agents at 612-673-3000. TTY users can call 612-673-2157 or 612-673-2626.

Para asistencia 612-673-2700 • Rau kev pab 612-673-2800 • Hadii aad Caawimaad u baahantahay
612-673-3500.

Earlier this month, the community celebrated a ribbon-cutting for the new Edison Plaza. On September 17, the community comes together again for a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the new Eastside Food Co-op. These two events, separated by little more than one week, speak volumes about the values and the vibrancy of the Ward One community.

Several years ago now, I began meeting with neighborhood leaders, Minneapolis Public Schools, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board and other jurisdictions and organizations to discuss how we could nurture an environmentally sustainable green space in the heart of the First Ward. Since those early days, partners have brought together enormous resources to realize the vision of a Green Campus and of Edison High School as the greenest school in the state. From the parking lot renovation and the athletic field redesign to the creation of a community plaza and urban agriculture hub, this area has been completely transformed. And impressive as it is, there are still more improvements to come, including a significant solar installation. (Check out the story below for more details.)

Eastside Food Co-op was also the result of community partners coming together with a vision well over a decade ago and putting in the hard work to make that vision a reality. Now we see a more than $6 million renovation that will allow enhancement of Eastside’s mission of offering fair products at fair prices while embodying cooperative values that build and enhance the community. I hope you will stop by Eastside on Saturday, September 17, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. to join in on this celebration.

We should be proud to see our community celebrating two such impressive achievements that speak so well to the strength of our schools and our economic vitality. Way to go, Ward One!

Edison Green Campus Phase II Unveiled

Project partners MWMO, Minneapolis Public Schools, Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association, City of Minneapolis, James Brenner, AWH Architects and Lazor.

Phase II of the Edison Green Campus was unveiled on September 9 shortly before Edison's first home football game. This phase of the multi-year sustainability initiative includes a new grand entrance to the Edison athletic field, a concessions building, greenhouse, community garden and underground storage tanks that will hold stormwater runoff collected from the gym roof, plaza, field and parking lot. Project partners, students and community members gathered on the new plaza to celebrate the completion of another piece of an initiative that has truly made Edison High School the greenest school in the state. Later this fall a solar canopy will be installed over the plaza that will generate enough energy to power 53 homes per year, offsetting 40 percent of the school's electricity needs. Other highlights of the Green Campus include a stormwater re-use system with the potential to store up to 110,900 gallons of captured rainwater, which will be used to irrigate the athletic field and a redesigned parking lot that can capture and treat more than 47,000 gallons of polluted stormwater runoff at a time. The greenhouse and student-created community garden will offer Edison students hands-on urban agriculture opportunities, while the entire Green Campus will function as an outdoor classroom and laboratory. The many partners involved in this project include Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Minneapolis Public Schools, Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association, City of Minneapolis, LISC, Minnesota Vikings, Spark-Y, AWH Architects, Stantec, and Lazor Office.

Edison Plaza Greenhouse

Hydro-Illuminata Lights Up the River on October 1

Torches create pinpoints of light in the darkness. Dancers weave in spiraling lines down the banks of the Mississippi. Flaming boats trail glowing lines of molten light across the river. The water itself appears transformed into liquid fire. These dramatic images are the culmination of Hydro-Illuminata, a three-month long community conversation about water sustainability.

Join local sculptor James Brenner and the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization for a public water and fire spectacle on the banks of the Mississippi as small, fire-filled boats are cast adrift on the water, giving tangible form to a community conversation about water sustainability:

When: Saturday, October 1, 2016, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Where: MWMO Stormwater Park, 2522 Marshall Street NE

What: Spectacular free public event that includes an iron pour performance, music, choreography and projections.

Who: Participants and partners include artist James Brenner, Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association, Walker Art Center, Homewood Studios, Minnesota Waldorf School, City of Lakes Waldorf School, Rhythm of the Saints and members of the Macalester College Pipe Band.

For more information, visit www.hydroilluminata.com.