Winter Storm Brings Snow to Newman Park

Newman Park playground rests silently in the snow.

Police closed Scenic Drive yesterday afternoon as children got an early dismissal from school. All who usually commute from their work in Northeast El Paso over Trans Mountain back to their homes on the Westside made the long trek around the south end of the mountains. Some left their cars off Alabama and were rescued by friends. City Council didn't begin today until 11 a.m. Ernie, the cat, took one look at the rain and snow this morning and buried himself at the bottom of his bed at the home he shares with Lee and Bobby Byrd.

Newmanista sweeps sidewalk along Savannah.

A little snow can't deter this jogger. Newman Park is used by many for their daily exercise regimen.

A big thanks goes to Newmanista Donna Stephens for these photographs.

City Offers Living Christmas Tree Program

A Mondale Pine watches lovingly over the home of Linda Chew and Bobby Perel

Before you run to Lowe's to buy your Christmas tree, you may want to consider a living Christmas tree. City of El Paso Arborist, Brent Pearson, has announced that his team will deliver a live 6 to 8 foot Mondale pine to your home and pick it up after the holidays to be planted in the City. The cost is just $100. For $40, his team will plant the tree on your property.

El Paso is in dire need of reforestation. Over the last several decades too many trees have been lost. More is known now about the kinds of trees that are perfect for our desert environment. The Mondale pine is known for its rapid growth and drought tolerance. It averages 3 feet of growth per year.

29 years ago David and Mandy Chew purchased a living Mondale pine for a Christmas tree and then planted it in their yard on Savannah. In 1982 they moved to their new home up the street and sold their house to David's sister, Linda, and her husband, Bobby Perel. The tree is still there and is one of the loveliest and most venerable trees not just in the Newman Park neighborhood but the entire City of El Paso.

Trees create shade that reduces our staggering energy costs during our hot summers. They help clean the air and they manage pollutants in run-offs during storms. In fact, they help minimize flooding far better than the heat-radiating cement that has taken over our urban landscape. They absorb carbon dioxide, the global warming gas.

Here is Brent Pearson's living tree announcement:

Have your Christmas Tree planted at a neighborhood Park

For $100.00 a six to eight foot living Christmas Tree will be delivered to your house and picked up after the New Year to be donated to the City of El Paso, or you can keep it and plant it in your own yard. Make this holiday season an opportunity to leave a living legacy that will last for generations

*

Tips on

living Christmas trees

Ÿ Delivery and Pick-up included

Ÿ They will not dry out and drop needles

Ÿ LIVING TREES REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE

Ÿ Twinkle lights work best instead of screw in bulbs

Ÿ If you want it planted at on private property, $40.00 extra

Ÿ EASY to water JUST USE A TRAY OF ice cubes EVERY OTHER DAY

Ÿ

The Mondale Pine is a selection of tree known

for it’s rapid growth and drought

tolerance. Average rate of growth

is over 3 ft. per year.

This is a great opportunity for us to add much needed tree canopy to our City. Why buy a tree and throw it away, REUSE it and let it be enjoyed by others. Our goal is to have a healthy urban environment.

If interested please call :

Brent Pearson at 588-1562 or 533-2342

To find out more about the benefit of trees and to help re-forest El Paso, contact the West Texas Urban Forestry Council at 915-834-5610.

Western Refinery Promotes Scenic Sundays

View traveling west on Interstate 10

View traveling east on Interstate 10

Western Refinery is now helping to promote Scenic Sundays. A new digital billboard advertisement can be seen by motorists going west or east on I-10 near Airways.

Newman Park Neighborhood Association board member, Becky Ayala, made the display possible. She is also an environmental engineer with WR.

Judy Gutierrez, Assistant to District 2 Representative Susie Byrd, exclaimed: "This is AWESOME!"

The digital advertisement will run during some of the busiest shopping days of the year. Western Refinery will run another promotion for Scenic Sunday in another month. El Paso police have observed that, currently, the same hundred or so people walk or bicycle Scenic Drive on Sunday mornings. The Newman Park Neighborhood Association in conjunction with the District 2 office plans to do more to get the word out about Scenic Sundays to El Pasoans and those visiting the City.

Mandy Chew Sets Sights High for Science Museum

Our very own Mandy Chew is the new Executive Director of Insights El Paso Science Museum. This El Paso institution has struggled for the past few years and the Board of Directors recruited Mandy with the goal of making Insights one of the premier science museums in the United States.

Insights was established in 1980 and opened its doors of the basement of the Anson Mills building then home of the El Paso Electric Company. The museum features a permanent collection of interactive exhibits on nature and science topics ranging from electricity and optics to health and biology. Kids of all ages, and seniors too, will get a jolt of fun out of the Tesla coil that courses with 500,000 volts several times each day. The mind games are also a favorite activity for families to work on together.

The current traveling exhibit is “Giant Worlds – A voyage to the Outer Solar System.” El Paso is only the third city to host this marvelous exhibit developed by the Space Science Foundation with assistance from NASA and the National Science Foundation. Giant Worlds is filled with interactive experiences, models and spectacular murals that reveal the grandeur of these amazing planets. Visitors can learn about gravity in a simulation that assigns a mass to the visitor’s shadow and demonstrates how particles, such as those in Saturn’s spectacular ring system, interact with the shadow. They can design and launch a virtual probe into Jupiter’s crushing atmosphere and see how far their probe gets before it is destroyed. Visitors can also experiment with the properties of visible and infrared radiation and learn how scientists use light to probe phenomena like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Mandy urges all Newmanistas to come and see her soon at Insights . In addition to the exhibits, Insights also hosts summer camps, sleep-overs and birthday parties.

For the holidays, Insights will be featuring a “Drop and Shop” day care for shoppers to leave their children from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, with lunch and a healthy snack provided.

The Insights is at 505 N. Santa Fe, next to City Hall and free parking is provided. You can reach Mandy by phone at 915-534-0000, Ext 20. Her email is Mandy.Chew@insightselpaso.org.

El Paso: Second Safest Big City

Just above New York City and Austin, El Paso has been ranked the second safest city in the United States - population 500,000 or above by CQ Press, the publisher of City Crime Rankings 2009 - 2010. That's progress. Last year El Paso was ranked third.

With modesty El Paso Police Officer Henry Slack gave the credit to the people of El Paso: "I think that the thanks should go to the citizens of El Paso."

Recalling the spate of vandalisms in our own neighborhood awhile back, Representative Susie Byrd put it this way: "A year or so ago, when there was a rash of criminal mischief in the neighborhood, the community and the neighborhood association got organized to stop it. They worked with the police to put an end to mischief and they sent a clear message that crimes would not be tolerated. It is communities working with police that makes El Paso safe."

CQ Press calculates the crime rankings of cities and metropolitan areas using six crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. Law officials do point out that there are many different factors that affect crime rates: "population density, composition of the population, climate, economic conditions, strength of local law enforcement agencies, citizen's attitudes toward crime, cultural factors, education levels, crime reporting practices of citizens and family cohesiveness." Nevertheless, measurements of crime levels are compatible from place to place.

Click on the image below to read the 2009 Crime Rankings:

Save the Mastiffs!

Two enormous, very sweet and friendly dogs are lost and currently waiting for their owner to call. Neither has tags and they were wandering in Newman Park.

They are both mastiffs - probably 135 to 150 pounds each with big block heads.

If you know anything, please call Lynn Coyle at her office 915-532-5546. You can also email me. Lynn cannot hold the dogs for long so time is of the essence.

Patricia Chew Seeks Election as Probate Judge

Probably most of us have seen the "Chew Mobile" in the neighborhood for awhile now. Newmanista, Pat Chew, is running for Judge of El Paso County Probate Court #1. Pat's law firm, Patricia B. Chew and Associates, P.C., is considered to be one of the best in the practice of immigration law. Pat's professional resumé includes a Juris Doctorate from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

Pat is the sister of Judges David Chew and Linda Chew - both of whom are also Newmanistas. She has two children: Bailey and Spencer.

She is a member of Texas Women Lawyers, the El Paso County Democratic Party, the Teamsters Union, the Autism Society of America, El Paso Women's Bar Association, LULAC, and the Mexican American Bar Association of El Paso.