The North Fork Blog

  • Preserve Norfolk, a Historical Preservation Community Action Committee

    Press Release Jan 11 2010

    The first meeting of "Preserve Norfolk", a historical preservation community action committee, visited the Karl Stefan Memorial Airport Terminal and listened and discussed the Historical Preservation 101 presentation by a Nebraska Historical Society officer originally from Norfolk. Please refer to the following presentation (PDF formatted).

    http://www.visioning2026.com/docs/Introduction to Preservation 101 - PP2003 version.pdf

    http://www.norfolkairportservices.com/

    http://www.airnav.com/airport/KOFK/NORFOLK_AIRPORT_SVCS

    The meeting was originally announced in the Norfolk Daily News Article, Preserving historic properties goal of new group, 1/8/2010, written by Cheryl Schmeckpeper, a board member of the Nebraska Historical Society.

    The next meeting is scheduled for February 14, 2010, at the McMill Building, the former Norfolk Post Office, with a tour starting at 1:30 PM and a presentation at 3 PM.

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  • Norfolk Elkhorn River Trail Receives Grant Funding

    Press Release Dec 23 2009

    NORFOLK ELKHORN RIVER TRAIL
    The City of Norfolk was recommended for funding in the amount of $500,000 for the design and construction of the Elkhorn River Trail. This bicycle/pedestrian trail starts at the east end of the Cowboy Trail Extension and extends 6,100 feet to the east. The trail travels through Ta-Ha-Zouka Park along an existing park maintenance road and ends at 1st Street. The concrete surfaced trail will be 10-feet wide and 6-inches thick and includes a pre-fabricated bridge across an existing drainage channel. Also funded as part of this project, is a concrete trailhead which is 40’ x 80’ and includes 20 parking stalls. The trailhead will be located at the ending point of the trail at 1st Street.

    Ta-Ha-Zouka Park consists of 99 heavily shaded acres along the Elkhorn River. This project provides connection to rental cabins, public campgrounds, restrooms, canoe access to the river, a recently renovated lagoon with handicapped fishing platform, volleyball court and softball field. Located further east in the newer park addition is a 24-court horseshoe complex, three-field softball complex, five field youth ball complex, a 19-hole disc golf course, and a boat launch at 1st Street. The City of Norfolk is providing a 25 percent local match of $175,054.

    The Cowboy Trail is the longest rail to trail network in the United States.

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  • Congressional Funding for 'Walk for a Day'

    Press Release Dec 15 2009

    Austin, TX receives $300,000 for trail head development through federal funding and their congressman. These federal dollars will be used to design and engineer the trailheads — the ‘doorways’ to the trail for long-distance recreational users, neighborhoods, and trail users in general. Northfork Riverwalk with connection to Cowboy Trail could be an excellent future project for our community.

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  • 2009 Annual Board Meeting Slide Presentation

    Press Release Dec 9 2009

    Jim Miller has asked Mark Hall to provide a presentation, about 10 minutes on “History in Review”.

    “History in Review--A Vision to the Future”

    “Bringing Fun Back to the River—Getting to the Water’s Edge”

    The Last Year
    • Signed Contract with HDR for Tasks 1 and 2
    • Community and HDR River Corridor Orientation—Kickoff (Logo Announced)
    • Stakeholders Interviews
    • Community Visioning Workshop using SWOT
    • Summary Report
    • Partnering with Norfolk SID on Mill Dam Spillway Bank Stabilization
    • Fund Raising—Professional Brochure

    What Did We Learn
    • Public/Private Projects Around the Country
    • Significant Community Buy-in and Resource Commitments
    • Community Inputs
    • HDR Economics and Demographic Trends
    • Assessed Value of Properties (small subset)

     

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  • City’s Park and Recreation Master Plan On-line Survey

    Press Release Dec 9 2009

    The consulting firm that is developing the City’s Park and Recreation Master Plan created an on-line survey for area residents to complete.

    Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. There is a text link near the bottom of the website page that will direct you to the survey.

    http://www.communityredesigned.com/norfolkparks/index.html

    There is a specific survey question that asks whether you support the NorthFork Riverwalk Development Project (Strongly Agree, Agree, No Opinion, Disagree, Strongly Disagree).  We would appreciate your Strongly Agree vote. :-))

    Here are a couple interesting references you might think about during this holiday season.
    1. Imagine transforming Johnson Park using public art and nature http://tinyurl.com/PublicArtinPark http://tinyurl.com/IslandGarden
    2. Improve the accessibility, quality, and quantity of play and play spaces for children http://tinyurl.com/PlayMatters
    3. Expansion of trails in existing park generating lots of dialogue on the pros and cons http://tinyurl.com/ParkTrails
    4. Trend--Cities closing recreation facilities that traditional lose money. http://tinyurl.com/RecreationDrainingBudgets
    5. How can we encourage innovation on a local level? What is your idea? An Innovation Agenda - http://bit.ly/4IEKGf
    6. Annual Board Meeting Slide Presentation http://www.visioning2026.com/NorthFork/2009AnnualBoardMtg.pdf
    7. Weak signal on economic development and "new workforce" http://bit.ly/1ETRlo
    8. Recreation is more than a field of dreams, facilities+hosting tournaments= economic development http://tinyurl.com/FieldsofDreams
    9. Joining Forces, Community effort matches uses to needs http://tinyurl.com/JoiningForces
    10. Helping students to ask good questions http://tinyurl.com/PowerofWhy

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  • Master Plan Summary Report for Task 1 & 2 Completed

    Press Release Oct 16 2009

    NorthFork Riverwalk Development Project completed another significant milestone by releasing the HDR Engineering Inc. final report on Tasks 1 and 2 of the overall Master Plan effort. The NorthFork Riverwalk Development Project Phase I and II Summary electronic copy of the report (78 pages, 3.5 MB Adobe Acrobat format) can be downloaded from the following website address. http://www.Visioning2026.com/NorthFork/HDR/090731_NorthForkRiverwalk_FINALdeliverable_SMALLsize.pdf

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  • Financial Campaign Kick-off Meeting

    Press Release Apr 24 2009
    From FundCampaignKickOff

    On April 23, 2009 the NorthFork Riverwalk Development Project kicked-off the financial campaign to raise $300,000 to pay for the Master Plan effort being performed by HDR Engineering, Inc., Omaha, NE. Over $80,000 have already been raised which represents just under 30 per cent of the funds needed

    Mr. Jim Miller, Chairman of the Board of Directors, charged the campaign solicitors with the "make it work" address.

    Darrel Novacek is the Fund Campaign Chair in charge of raising the monies.

    The meeting was held at Webb & Hazel McNally's "club house" home, 103 South 5th St, downtown above Western Office Supply.

     

    Photo album is posted at the Picasa NorthFork Riverwalk website.

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  • Map Studies of Riverfront Corridor

    Press Release Apr 20 2009

    During the Visioning Sessions held April 16th, HDR Engineering Inc. staff presented a series of maps to help citizens understand more clearly the area and possibilities for future development.

    Refer to the following website address for the different maps to include:

    • Base Map
    • Base Map with Aerial
    • Building Figure Ground Map
    • Context Map
    • Open Space Map
    • Pavement Map (to include streets and parking lots)
    • Pedistrian Shed - Business (1/4 mile walking distance)
    • Pedistrian Shed - Community and Cultural Locations
    • Pedistrian Shed - Schools
    • Zoning Map

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  • Visioning Session Slide Presentation

    Press Release Apr 19 2009
    From Visioning Sessions

    NorthFork Riverwalk Development project completed two 3 hour visioning sessions that include 88 people in attendance on April 16, 2009.

    HDR Engineering Inc. presented a NorthFork Riverwalk information slide presentation (9.7 MB PDF file) to help kick-off the session and what has been doneup up to this point. The presenetation included the results from the,

    • Interview Sessions that were held February 9th and 10th were over 60 individuals being interviewed,
    • Economic analysis of the current trends and possible development opportunities, and
    • Case studies of other communities and how their redevelopment activities relate to the NorthFork project.

    The visioning session participant then completed a Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis which was a community driven collection of ideas followed by a community consensous on the ideas presented through a voting process. The results were shared with the participants which will be included in a report.

    The final step of the Visioning Sessions was a Geomapping Exercise were participants were able to annotate and existing map of the study area with possible redevelopment activities.

    Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) Analysis is a good method to collect community input in small groups and then build consensus between the different participants. Each group had 4 sheets of butcher paper that they included ideas on the 4 different areas relative to the project. Each group shared with the facilitator those ideas which were consolidated. Then the individuals where given 4 sets of color dots (3 each) to correspond to the 4 areas and then asked to vote on the idea they felt was the most important. An individual could put on three dots on one ideas if they felt strongly about it.

    A photo album is posted at the Picasa NorthFork Riverwalk website.

     

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  • Riverfront Case Studies on Other Communities

    Press Release Apr 11 2009

    The NorthFork Riverwalk Visioning Sessions will incoporate case studies of 6 communities with features that citizens should consider for goal setting and future implementation. HDR Engineering Inc. is preparing these case studies as part of Task 2 of the Master Plan contracted effort.

    Five of the six riverfront projects being introduced include the following with some referenced website links for additional background:

    1. Antonio, TX; http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_River_Walk
    2. Naperville, IL http://www.napervilleriverwalk.com/
    3. http://www.napervilleriverwalk.com/future.htm
    4. Paducah, KY;  http://www.ci.paducah.ky.us/paducah/riverfront-master-plan
    5. Frederick, MD;
    6. Wilmington, DE      http://www.riverfrontwilm.com/
      The Wilmington Riverfront has generated nearly $67 million in fiscal revenues for the city, county and state since 1996.
      http://www.riverfrontwilm.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=11&cntnt01returnid=41
      http://www.riverfrontwilm.com/uploads/pdfs/riverfrontmap.pdf

     

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