Boards Inc skatepark and skate shop opened its doors to the public for first time today. Located next door to the Cycling and Fitness Warehouse, Boards Inc is Richmond's only private indoor skatepark. The park was designed by Suburban Rails, a highly regarded regional skatepark contractor known for designing the highly popular Florence, Kentucky skatepark.

The compact skatepark features a large four foot mini ramp with a hip and a five foot extension, as well as other quarter pipes and a number of street course elements. The park has a good flow, allow skaters to move fluidly from one element to another. The shop manager reports that there are plans underway for an adjacent cafe, with possible expansions including a wooden bowl and 10' halfpipe.

While many towns around the country have some kind of skatepark now, very few have two quality parks as Richmond does. Further details about the business including their hours, location and contact details are available through their website.

On April 24, 2008, Richmond will be celebrating its designation as an Indiana CLEAN Community. The Indiana Comprehensive Local Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) Community Challenge is a voluntary recognition program for local Indiana government. CLEAN helps communities take steps to plan, develop, and implement a quality of life plan. This plan includes gathering input and support from the community and local businesses.

The City of Richmond, working through the Richmond Wayne County Environmental Awareness Council, has developed a Quality of Life Plan (QLP). It is similar in concept to an environmental management program (ISO: 14000) used by many businesses. CLEAN actions are in keeping with the sustainability commitments of the Strategic Plan.

Here are the five CLEAN goals for Richmond:  continue reading »

New bike-carrying racks have arrived for Rose Transit buses and they have been installed!
There will be a public celebration at the City Building (South entrance) on Monday, April 14th at 10am. Take an early lunch and ride on over to show your support for this great development in alternative transportation for Richmond.

From Newslink Indiana: An Earlham college professor and his students are urging people in Richmond to participate in an effort to bring back poetry to the community.

English professor David Ebenbach started the Richmond Community Poetry Effort, which is funded by a grant from the college. The effort distributed composition notebooks to different establishments. They hope that people who see the notebooks will write in them.

“Its not that people are petrified and it’s not that poetry is a bad four-letter word. It’s just that people aren’t given the resources or the opportunity to share poems,” said Earlham senior Gabriel Kalmuss-Katz.  continue reading »

Abundant Acres Farm in Williamsburg works to "provide your family quality natural products grown only on site free of chemicals, hormones or antibiotics." For 2008, Abundant Acres is offering a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, with a variety of packages that offer vegetables, eggs, meats, soap, and more.
They also offer:

* Seasonal produce, chemical free
* All natural brown eggs
* Free range chicken
* Goat Milk Soap  continue reading »

Recreational cyclists in Richmond now have a new online resource to organize their rides and events. Earlier this week long time rider Pat Williams launched the Richmond Cycling Google group, which members can use as an e-mail list, while also easily jointly creating web pages and sharing files and photos.

Pat had previously coordinated an e-mail list of about 50 recreational riders. Members of the group often gather for rides on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as weekend rides. See the new Richmond Cycling site for details.

This group complements the existing Bike Richmond group which focuses on bikes as transportation and also uses Google Groups.

You are cordially invited to an open house presentation by Ball State landscape architecture students on Monday, March 17th at 1:30 p.m. at the Reid Presbyterian Church at the corner of North A and North 11. The students developed several projects that link the central business district with the following areas:

Gorge/Logo Building
Veterans Memorial Park
Depot District
Wayne County Museum
Uptown
US 40 Corridor
Earlham  continue reading »

In today's Palladium-Item, correspondent Pam Tharp writes about how a backyard vegetable garden can save you money and help you eat more healthy food:

Locally grown food is becoming increasingly important to many people. Contamination in the food chain is one concern. The other is the cost of shipping food across the country and the amount of oil required to do so. Urban agriculture cuts shipping and fuel use.

You can read the full article.

I thoroughly recommend a visit to Fountain Acre Foods, an off-the-grid Amish-run grocery story. Located in plain sight just off of 27 south of Fountain City, this full service grocery is eight miles north of Richmond.  continue reading »

Imagine Indiana as a role model of sustainability by 2016. Join a growing movement of people from Indiana whose organizations and projects are incorporating principles of sustainability.

Sustainable Indiana 2016 is a Collaborative Project Initiated by Earth Charter Indiana, Inc. Indiana is not generally regarded as a role model for progressive causes but could, for that very reason, make a considerable impact for good by becoming a national and world “leader” in the race to sustainability.  continue reading »