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The recent snow didn’t cause any power outages for us in NRV, but lots of other people lost power. And we’re certainly not immune. The following info comes from Public Heath-Seattle & King County.

Prevent carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning can kill you. Carbon monoxide gas comes from burning fuels such as gasoline, propane, oil, kerosene, natural gas, coal or wood.

Prevent poisoning from carbon monoxide:

• Only use a generator outdoors and far from open windows and vents
• Never use a generator or portable propane heater indoors, in garages or carports
• Never cook or heat inside on a charcoal or gas grill.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen suddenly and without warning. Physical symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning may include splitting headache, nausea and vomiting, and lethargy and fatigue.

If you believe you could be experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning, get fresh air immediately. Call for medical help from a neighbor’s home. The Fire Department will tell you when it is safe to re-enter the home.

For a full list of carbon monoxide prevention tips and other safety and disaster information in English and other languages, visit www.kingcounty.gov/health/disaster.

Staying warm indoors safely
If you have a power outage, use safe ways to stay warm:

• Find places where you can go to get warm, such as the home of friends and family whose homes have power. Many cities have opened centers where people can go during the day to stay warm. Center locations can be found at www.kingcounty.gov/safety/prepare
• Wear several layers of light weight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Wear hats, mittens, and blankets indoors.
• Close curtains and cover windows and doors with blankets. Everyone should try to stay together in one room, with the door closed, to keep in body heat.

Stay safe

• Check on elderly friends, family, and neighbors to make sure they are safe.
• Watch your footing on surfaces that may be icy and slick, and wear shoes that provide traction.
• Be careful not to overexert yourself when shoveling snow, especially if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, as the cold weather puts extra strain on your heart.
• Do not sled on streets or on slopes near streets, ponds, or streams.
• Avoid driving if you can. If you must drive, allow safe stopping times and distances.

Help others

• Warn others about carbon monoxide poisoning. Share the information with neighbors, friends, family and community groups.
• Check on family, friends, and neighbors, especially if they are elderly or if you think their power might be out.
• If you know someone who has lost electricity, invite them to your home to stay warm.

Food safety
If power goes out where you live, keep food safe:

• Keep the doors closed on your refrigerators and freezers as much as possible. This keeps the cold air inside. A full freezer can stay at freezing temperatures about two days; a half-full freezer about 1 day.
• If you think the power will be out for several days, try to find some ice to pack inside your refrigerator. Keep raw foods separate from ready-to-eat foods.
• Refrigerated foods should be safe as long as the power is out no more than a few hours and the refrigerator/freezer doors have been kept closed. Throw away foods that spoil easily (such as meat and fish) if they warm up above 41º F.
• Frozen foods that remain frozen are OK to eat. If potentially hazardous foods are thawed (such as meat and fish), but are still cold or have ice crystals on them, use them as soon as possible. If potentially hazardous foods are thawed and are warmer than 41º F, throw them away.

The Neighborhood House Technology Center and the Seattle University Nursing Students are partnering on a special workshop this Thursday!

Health and The Internet Workshop
4pm - Thursday November 17
Neighborhood House Technology Center

Learn to use the Internet to find accurate health information, healthy recipes, and locate local clinics that fit your healthcare needs!

The workshop is being presented by knowledgeable Seattle University Nursing Students.

For more information, contact Laura or Kat at 206-461-4568 ext 202.

Are you prepared for winter? Seattle University nursing students are hosting a winter preparedness fair on Thursday, November 10th from 6-8pm at the Neighborhood House in the Paul Allen Room. Stop by, or contact Kate Farmer at 206.461.4568 ext. 211 for more info.

For the seventh straight year, Seattle’s recycling rate has risen, hitting an all-time high of 53.7 percent overall and 70.3 percent for single households. The national recycling average is 32.1 percent. While each city calculates its diversion rates differently, Seattle is considered to be among the national leaders in municipal recycling, especially after the great strides we made in 2010.

Now Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is looking for your input to inform our decision-making as they update the long-term waste plan. Please take a moment to review the draft plan available at www.seattle.gov/util/About_SPU/Garbage_System/Plans/Solid_Waste_Comprehensive_Plan/index.asp. Feel free to choose the section that most interests you:

• The Executive Summary, which gives an overview of the entire plan and summarizes all recommendations in the plan.
• A Breakdown of Recycling Recommendations shows when these recommendations would be implemented in the different sectors of single-family homes, apartments and condos (multi-family), and business (commercial).
• Chapters that contains recommendations:
  • Chapter 3 Waste Prevention, which covers strategies to prevent waste from being created. It also talks about product stewardship, which gets producers and retailers more involved in managing their products at end of life.
  • Chapter 4 Seattle’s MSW System, which goes into more depth about the recycling recommendations. It also talks about the steps in waste management, from collection, through transfer, to processing and landfill disposal.
  • Chapter 5 Other Solid Waste Streams, which contains recommendations to increase construction and demolition debris, as well as for graffiti, illegal dumping, litter, and community cleanup.
  • Chapter 6 Administration and Financing the Plan discusses solid waste education, as well as the financial impacts of the recycling recommendations.

After reading the section(s), please send a quick note to spusurveys@connectionsgroup.org specifying which section(s) you read and including any comments you have on the recommendations, the overall direction of the plan, the recycling goals, or anything else.

Here are a few questions to jumpstart your thinking.

1. Do you support the draft plan’s recycling goals to reach 60% by 2015, and the longer-term goal of 70% by 2022? Do you think Seattle should be more aggressive about recycling, or increase recycling more slowly?

2. SPU’s waste prevention programs include product stewardship activities, which seek increased producer responsibility for wastes. Do you agree producers and retailers should do more to reduce toxics in their products, and make their products more recyclable? Do you think they should pay for managing products at their end of life?

3. The recycling recommendations would be phased in over a number of years. Do you agree with the order and timing of the changes? Do you think customers will have time to get used to a change before the next one comes? Should the timing be more aggressive?

4. Do you support SPU inspectors increasing how often they look in garbage containers for materials that aren’t allowed?

5. Do you think the changes will go smoothly? Are there perhaps some problems SPU planners should take into account before starting a new program?

Lastly, SPU asks that you fill out a five-minute survey when you have a moment. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/spusolidwasteplan.

Thanks very much for your time. SPU appreciates your feedback!

Seattle Tilth and the Seattle Community Farm are sponsoring a four-part gardening class that will teach you how to start or maintain your Northwest garden. Interpretation will be available in Vietnamese, Chinese (Cantonese) and Somali.

Tuesdays from 5:30 – 6:30pm:
May 3rd
June 7th
July 5th
August 2nd

Classes take place at the Seattle Community Farm, immediately north of New Rainier Vista.

Each class will focus on growing food in the Northwest and will begin with a lecture or demonstration. You can come to all four classes, or just the ones that interest you. Participants are encouraged to put their new skills to use by staying for the Seattle Community Farm’s regular Work Party, which goes until 8pm.

Please tell us if you are planning to come, or drop by. Classes are FREE. Questions? Contact us at urbanfarm@solid-ground.org or (206) 694-6746 x2

Aging and Disability Services (ADS) needs community input! As the Area Agency on Aging for Seattle-King County, ADS prepares a new Area Plan on Aging for King County every four years, which guides their decision and funding priorities. Work on the 2012-2015 Area Plan is now underway, but ADS needs to hear Seattle and King County residents. Residents of all ages are invited to complete an online questionnaire. People age 60+, adults with disabilities, and family caregivers are especially encouraged to respond.

The questionnaire is posted at www.agingkingcounty.org. You can also get there via an article in Seniors Digest about the planning process. Print copies are available on request.

Responses from this questionnaire will inform development of strategies to promote quality of life, independence and choice for older people and adults with disabilities, which will be carried out over the next four years. Everybody is aging, so everybody should care. For more information about the Area Plan on Aging or the questionnaire, contact ADS planner Karen Winston (206-684-0706).

There’s a community health fair coming to the Boys & Girls Club on Wednesday, March 2 at 5pm. Health information and health providers will be available. There will be healthy food, raffle prizes, entertainment and giveaways. Free services will include

• Blood pressure checks
• Dental screenings
• Rapid HIV testing
• Fitness resources
• Weight and body fat measurements
• Child car seat safety
• Health information tables
• Bicycle safety
• “Ask a Doctor” and more!

Participating agencies include APICAT, Cascade Bicycle Club, Children’s Hospital, Community Health Plan of Washington, Haborview Hospital, International Community Health Services, Neighborcare Health, Neighborhood House, Public Health Seattle King County, Project HANDLE, Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club, Seattle Housing Authority, Seattle Parks & Recreation, Seattle University, South Seattle Drug Free Communities Coalition, WAPI Community Services, Washington Health Foundation, Washington Oral Health Foundation, Wellspring Family Services, YMCA of Greater Seattle.

Interpretation will be available.

Stop by the Neighborhood House on a Wednesday in February between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm for a visit to the free health desk. Get your blood pressure checked, get weighed, have a health assessment, and get your health questions answered. Free and provided by Seattle University Nursing students.

If you are without health insurance, you can get a Free flu shot voucher from the Neighborhood House. Stop by and see Christine at the front desk.

The January sky lightens up a bit, and thoughts turn toward spring. With the help of the Department of Neighborhoods, the Seattle Housing Authority, and other community partners, LettuceLink is working to transform half an acre in the New Rainier Vista neighborhood into a giving and teaching garden. This garden will be located at the north end of NRV, between Andover and Yancey and next to the Habitat site.

click on the image above to see a larger version.

Modeled after Marra Farm, the Seattle Community Farm will be a space for low-income residents of Rainier Valley to grow food for themselves and to share with the Rainier Valley Food Bank. While the garden will focus on food production, there will be many chances for gathering, celebrating, and learning. Garden education opportunities will be available throughout the growing season—seed saving, children’s gardening, and food preparation workshops are all being considered.

Jamie Robinson and Leslie Heimer of Solid Ground and Lettuce Link are coordinating outreach activities in and around New Rainier Vista: asking neighbors what they would like to grow, how they would like the garden to look, and how they will be involved. They are particularly interested in hearing ideas for celebrations and community gatherings that can take place in the garden. When neighbors come together to break bread (or chard or broccoli for that matter), strong communities can take shape.

If you are interested in being involved in the Seattle Community Farm, please contact Jamie Robinson at jamier@solid-ground.org, or Leslie Heimer at leslieh@solid-ground.org. There will be many opportunities to share your ideas, or just get your hands dirty.