Roll Out the Barrel

By: Richard Campi

Roll out the barrel and make use of such for much! Susan Beauchamp and I use two, sixty-gallon (Plastic) ZEP containers to water the thirty-six planters on the median strip down Calvary Street from Fletcher Ave. to over the Interstate 65/70 bridges. I load these on their side in my 1950 Chevrolet pick-up truck with five, 5-gallon jugs and fill them at my house. This is a gravity-fed system with water taps and four small plastic buckets. We dispense about 130 gallons of water by filling the buckets and pouring it onto the plants and trees. We always hope for regular rain and not to need this chore!

We have been maintaining this and other landscaping projects over the past dozen years and hope to for some years to come. Grants to develop these public landscapes ask for a commitment to maintain the projects with respect and follow-through for years to come, but many projects fall out of favor and are abandoned after a few years. Friends of Historic Fountain Square Neighborhood Association has kept its commitment to these projects and were the first in Southeast Indy to have landscape projects.

Susan and I are also rolling out the barrel at our home as well. We are developing three rain barrels, one of which I’ve just completed (Hope for rain!) and two are in progress. These should each hold 60 gallons of rainwater for our home garden use. Ken Williams, who was incidentally Fountain Square’s first Santa, gave me all five barrels.

To help with the interesting and difficult job of making the rain barrels, I used Suding Hardware Store. While I was trying to explain the rain barrel idea, a plumber who was patron talked with us. He gladly drove back to my residence to help size up the project. When I went back to the store, he and the proprietor then had a more complete picture of what I wanted. I was then very personally helped with securing all needed pipe, elbow, clamps, etc. to the exact need of each rain barrel and its location. Like many home projects, this one seemed simple until I began obtaining and assembling all the extra parts beyond the barrel.

In order to install the rain barrel, the existing downspouts on the house have to be sawed off, but I want to put them back in November for winter. A plastic (rubber-like) boot clamping section is secured to the remaining downspout, a plastic elbow is clamped into that, and then a section of plastic pipe is secured into another plastic elbow that empties in the top of the rain barrel. My rain barrel tops have been cut off so that they fit back on with a hole cut out in center of top to accommodate the plastic elbow. Just an inch or so above the bottom of the barrel, I drilled a hole to insert a water faucet (threaded at both ends). A water bucket or a hose may be employed to catch the water from the faucet. A threaded short pipe screwed into the rear of the faucet and a large nut screwed onto that snug it up to the interior wall of the barrel. I needed to cut out some plastic foam to make a gasket to keep the faucet tight. If and when the barrels overflow, the loose lids will let excess water escape.

For people who desire to take a project such as this on, one needs to make sure that the barrels are far enough away from the home’s foundation as to not cause any basement problems. That distance determines the estimated length of pipe from elbow to elbow. I have my barrels mounted upon four concrete blocks. Two are regular size and two are shorter. I’ve leveled the ground surface first. I have raised the spigot about eighteen inches above the ground, so that a can or bucket fits under it. Every now and then I will need to rinse the sediment from the interior.

Remember that this isn’t a rush job. Do a small step at a time or get it wrong. I’ve put this “green” direction off for a least a couple of months. So…go with the flow! (But after all this work, I’m worried that it will never rain again!)

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Commentary on Church and Community

Submitted by: Richard Campi

It is a difficult situation when a church and a community are at odds. A local church has reneged on its promises to the neighbors over a period of years over issues of parking and landscaping. Several times a year this church has large masses of people attending. Parking for neighborhood residents is ignored, although in the past the church said that it would provide guidance for attendees to leave spaces for the neighbors. This spring an attendee parked and partially blocked the alley. In the past attendees have parked on private property, blocking neighbors from using their garage. When the church wanted to change to angle parking instead of parallel parking, the neighbors complied with the understanding that some parking would be exclusively for residents. The city would post signs and parking would be monitored by church members. When church attendees park in residential spots and are asked to move, they often become nasty. Neighborhood resident complaints are just considered a nuisance.

Over a decade ago, the church’s thousands of members entered into a landscape project with the neighborhood association. Several thousand dollars in grants for plants, city services, and donated time provided beautifully planted traffic islands instead of ugly asphalt for all of the city residents. The pastor signed an agreement for the church to maintain these islands and trees along the avenue. At first, several members regularly watered, weeded, removed trash and generally tended these landscape projects. Over time the church has given responsibility for landscaping to its overall paid grounds maintenance. This has resulted in neglect, gross weed infestation, and often in trash accumulation. Those plants that were not dead were ignored and none have been replaced. In the summer of 2008, the area around the remaining plants was weed-whacked about twice during the season. This year they have mowed down the all of the mature sedum, lilies, yarrow, and other plants remaining. This means that several hundreds of dollars of mature plants have been destroyed without giving anyone else the opportunity to use them. It seems that the church plan is simply to mow the areas when mowing the grass.

As of June 1, no one at the church will respond to inquiries from the neighborhood residents or city representatives. Although this is near the offices of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, no one there seems to be interested to do anything meaningful in this assault on landscaping either. Perhaps by the time this is published, someone will assist the community to have this travesty against the community restored to its original beauty.

Books and Beds:A Memoir 

Submitted By: Phyllis Nash

I was educated in public school with the Dick & Jane readers. These books did not make for quickly turned pages, but did help us learn to read. About the most exciting part that I remember was when Ned baked potatoes under a pile of burning leaves. I’ve never tried this because I would have as likely had burned potatoes. Ned must have known how to bank the fire. My dad was an expert at banking the coal stove fire. It is not as easy as one would think. It was not uncommon to have the fire go out and have to be started again in the cold morning, but my dad was a master and his fires never went out.

My favorite schoolbook was the health book. What I liked so much about that book was the Art Nouveau colors: sepia, orange, rosy pink and a shade of pale yellow that reminded me of vanilla. I’d always wish for a bed like the child in the health book. The child’s bed was a little like a medieval type of bed—it had drapes one could close around the bed. I think I read a book about Ireland, which had a similar bed. The bed was in a little alcove and there was a door that could be closed for privacy. No troubles if company came; just close the drapes or the door. I’ve never seen a real bed like that so I take comfort in remembering the one in the grade school Health book.

One other bed that I keep in my mind was in an “Architectural Digest Magazine.” That one was many thousands of dollars and way out of my league, but I liked the bed in the health book just as much.

Jobs vs. Health

By: Richard Campi

Clean coal is a misnomer. All coal production is DIRTY and bad for everyone’s health. This is an absolute fact. Yes, newer technology is more efficient and cleaner, but remains very, very dirty and unhealthy as it is mined and burned.
Appalachia, especially West Virginia has the lowest life expectancy in the United States and it has the worst air quality in the U.S. (Indiana is #2 worst.) Although many other factors are involved, coal is most responsible.
What is the trade off? Logically we should consider clean air. Renewable energy, such as wind, solar, algae, etc. are directions that will energize our personal health along with the health of the planet earth.

We all have to die of something sometime anyway. We have all heard or express this lame-brained rationale…especially from addicts. Education seems to be a foul four letter word to many. Work for your good health, exercise, eat better foods, and think for the day after tomorrow. You have all heard this also before. It’s too much trouble to exercise, stop smoking, resist gambling (waste of logical mental health), be a good neighbor, including sharing in keeping the surroundings clean and orderly. These and many other aspects of life are choices in the way we live. The choice of a profession or the jobs we take impact the style of our living and should benefit the environment. Breathing clean air is paramount to having “a sound mind in a sound body”. Those of you that read and think this through are more likely to be in the chorus of like-minds. Those of you that do not read probably cannot make better choices any way. Are you one that chooses making money over striving for good health for yourself and others? Referring back to a “sound mind” and “resisting gambling,” the only time I’ve succumbed to crap shooting is when I’ve had food poisoning!

Just How Dis-shoveled Are You?

By: Richard Campi

This certainly has been a very cold January and part of February. Those of us that felt we really should have some snow finally got it! This is to the peril and dismay of most of the ones who do the shoveling and drive very far. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was pleasantly surprised that the city of Indianapolis, through the news media, asked that the populace shovel the sidewalks, etc. This is required by ordinance and I hope that many of you able-bodies did your duty and good deeds and did shovel your walks.

I know that this is repetitious to many, but we as property owners are responsible by thought and law to remove any debris from the walk, street and alley adjacent to our properties and to halfway across. It would help if renters as well as passersby would “lift a finger” or at least some trash when one sees it. Ask for more public trash receptacles in heavy pedestrian areas and “Pitch IN!”

There is a plan in progress to assess the quality or lack thereof of our streets, sidewalks, storm sewers, tree lines, posted signage, street lights, etc. This is to being done by residents street by street throughout the southeast of Indianapolis. This survey will be submitted to the City of Indianapolis to assist in prioritizing repairs. Surveyors will receive $12.50/hour to do this job in the spring. If you wish to assist, contact Jeff Miller at 917-0545 or jeff03167@indy.rr.com. If you wish to learn more about your neighborhood, attend your neighborhood association or contact them for more information. A listing of these meetings is in this paper.

Richard Campi
866 Fletcher Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46203
317-634-2448
beauartnow@yahoo.com

Update on 229 S. Shelby

Update on 229 S. Shelby

By: Richard Campi

As of Monday, Dec. 15, 2009 at 11:57 am, David Kingen (representing the interests of Irish Hill NA and the concerned entities of SE Indy area) contacted Mike Quinn (attorney) representing Joe Collins (owner of the auto savage business). “Mike we were hopeful of hearing from you on Friday, 12/12/08, but as of this time still have not heard from you. Do you intend to proceed with your special exception hearing tomorrow?”
At 3:25 pm, David contacted me, “Sorry that I could not take your call…. I have not been able to sit down with Mr. Collins yet. I would hope that we could continue the case tomorrow and meet with the Irish Hill at their meeting in January. Please let me have your thoughts. Thanks!”
At 4:46 pm, David sent an email to the concerned entities: “It looks as though the special exception hearing on the salvage yard will be continued from 12/16/08 to 1/27/09 at 1 pm. Please mark you calendars accordingly.”
On Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, at 6:41 pm, David sent “an early Christmas present. The petition for the salvage yard at this address (229 Shelby St.) was withdrawn today. Thanks to everyone for their efforts, from the support of the remonstrating letters from nearby neighborhood organizations to support from the City County Councilors (and many others), I am sure this had a profound influence on their decision. Thanks again.”
My thoughts on the process to defeat this motions is that many cases are dragged out to have concerned neighborhood protest fall by the wayside while waiting for the case to be heard. This tends to work, as neighbors get tired of attending the hearings. It is human nature to give up and move on. Major Clifford Myers and Capt. Greg Stanton of IMPD gave me a personal call of thankfulness for my involvements and activity.

Home Invasion

Home Invasion

By: Richard Campi

I’ve lived and learned like many people, but obviously I’ve much more to ingest in life. I’m a retired public school teacher of very many years and teaching (also learning) has been a life’s mindset. I’ve advised untold numbers of people about security issues among a plethora of issues for people in all situations. Well…Friday, September 26, in the middle of the day, my wife heard the back door chime and came down from our second floor library/office. A man (40 something) asked her when our tenant would be home. Susan responded that she was not sure, about 5-6 pm. About a half hour later, I came home from the dentist and Susan left on her bike out the back gate. I went into the house through the back door to get out of my better public duds. Shortly I was to get into old work clothes and go to do outside work. For a few minutes, I was relaxing on the bed, watching a few minutes of the noon news on the TV. I heard about four footsteps, and at our front hallway bedroom door was a man headed to the front door, which was locked.

I shouted at him as to why he was in the house and what he was doing. He spun around and was running out the way he had come saying, “She said so.” I, running after him, shouted, “NO, she didn’t!” The man ran out the back door and I followed him. He had the advantages of about forty to fifty feet ahead of me, almost half my age, and had clothes on. I found this to be all too much with only the bare essentials to deal with. He ran faster when I shouted that I knew who he was. I saw that the man was carrying a white cloth bag and adjusting something to within it. Upon surveying the house scene, I came to realize that he had both of our wallets, our digital camera, its equipment, and our vehicle’s key with remote. These had been located on or near our dining room table. I quickly dialed 911, put on clothes, and an officer was at my house in about four minutes.

I’ve generally considered myself cautious about security, but of course, now I am more paranoid about always locking every door both coming and going. My wife, Susan, had a good look at the man who had come to the house earlier. I suspect that he was casing the place first and saw that she left on her bike. The next-door neighbor had her bike stolen from the back of her house the night before.

I’ve learned that this robber was so efficient that he probably is on record for us to identify with “mug shots.” The IMPD officer indicated that a detective would call us to come to the station to do this. But during a neighborhood association meeting the following week, a police officer indicated that it might be weeks before this happens because of lack of manpower in the department. At this time, there is no way to get efficient results from our police dept. system for loss of property. I cannot hurry the extremely slow process of our police work in which “everything is backed up severely.” The advice is to make sure you call about credit cards, check with your insurance, change the locking system of your vehicle and lock your self in your home at all times. (I feel like a prisoner.)

Since I’ve related this story to several immediate neighbors, locks and actions have been added to others’ houses. Some have it in their heads that this is less likely to happen where they live or that we shouldn’t have to live with the fear of invasion. Just be on guard and accept my word to the wise.

If I had had a weapon within reach during this invasion, I wouldn’t have had the chance to use it effectively. I do believe that if I had such a weapon, I may have shot to kill him in my moment of rage. However in this instance, I saw his face for only a split second, and in several seconds I acted.

I was assured as everyone was at the Neighborhood Meeting, that if I had shot and killed the intruder in my house, on my property, or blocks from here (having the items that were stolen on him), it would be absolutely legal and justified. I’m totally against killing most anything for any reason, but at the moment of seeing someone invade my house, I wished for the extreme. Things could have been much worse for both of us if weapons were involved. I know that the odds are great in that this was like winning the great lottery in reverse.

I don’t need to have any more to be sorry for! But what a real shame to be afraid to leave your door unlocked for minutes. I’ve largely written this for everyone else’s benefit and protection. One always thinks that it won’t happen to ME!