River Peoples Cultural Exchange

A Good Day

I don't think it could have been any more perfect than this!

Sign Goes Up

The River Peoples Cultural Exchange sign is placed for this Friday's event. 

Film Crew Comes to Lyle

The Cross Currents film crew will be interviewing local residents for a video series that centers around conversations with the people of the Gorge. The producer and director are seen in the above photo shooting footage of the Columbia River People on Lyle Point. They will be at the May 15th River Peoples Cultural Exchange with a crew of about 15 capturing the celebration event.

Michael Friend is an independent writer/producer of documentary and commercial films and videos. He is also a writer and producer of print and web projects.

John Hardham is the owner and creative director of Light Wave Communications a Columbia Gorge media production company. 

Preparing for the Cultural Exchange

Vern Harpole, Roger Hull, and Don Starkin have been busy cleaning up the town in prepartion for the River Peoples Cultural Exchange that is coming to Lyle on May 15th. If you see them around, give them a big "thank you" for all their volunteer efforts.

Help Wanted!

Cultural Exchange May 15

Lyle Elementary School Building

Click Here to Look inside!

Is it worth saving?

Or should it be demolished?

Congratulations to the LAMBS CUP Winners

LAMBS CUP*

*(Lyle Area Merchants and Businesses Support of the Clean Up Program)

Congratulations to the 14 winners of the 2009 LAMBS CUP Raffle:

• Andy Tuthill
• Barbara Mills
• Brian Hinde
• Coy Sauls
• D. Melody
• David McCune
• Della Smith
• Elizabeth Macleod
• Evelyhn VonAhn
• James Byers
• Kim Delay
• Linda Marlow
• Scott Brewer
• Will Trude

Many thanks to the raffle donors who made this event possible:

Colleen Connolly, Northwest Realty Group

Country Cafe

Country Store Thrift Store

Domaine Pouillon Winery

Full Throttle Espresso (2)

Lyle Mercantile

Milestone Nursery

Oren Johnson

Patrice Archuleta, Northwest Realty Group

Sara Abell, Northwest Realty Group

Syncline Wine Cellars

The Lyle Tap Room

Watching Woman Production

About 70 community members participated in the raffle and many others had an opportunity to visit our museum during the two days of the clean-up.

Cookie were sold

Dallesport Daisy Troop sold lots of cookes on Saturday April 11. The town-wide clean up brought people to town, and the girls set up shop right next door to the drop off site. They sold a lot of cookies. The girls will next volunteer to clean up the Klickitat-Balfour State Park at the end of April, enjoy a day-trip to Horsethief Buttte in May, take a fun trip to Oaks Park in June and maybe even visit the Oregon Zoo this summer.

Daisy Girl Scouts Clean Up Park Place

Dallesport Girl Scout Troop #3425 enthusiastically cleaned up Lyle Park Place during their March spring break. The girls picked up the litter in an effort to “make the world a better place.” Four bags of garbage were removed.

The kindergarten girls, all new to Girl Scouts, have been busy since September with various activities. This was their first community service project.

Olivia said, “I had a lot of fun today. The garbage on the ground made me feel bad, and I am happy that we picked it up.”

Emma reflected, “the garbage made us sad and not glad.”

The Troop is also selling Girl Scout cookies to fund future projects, including a field trip to Oaks Park in Portland and the Oregon Zoo. They look forward to future community service projects. If you are interested in buying cookies to support Troop efforts, please contact Troop Leader Lisa at 509-365-6828. If you want to buy cookies but don't want to eat them, you can purchase cookies and the girls will donate them to an organization or individual of your choice. Cookies are $4.00 a box.

Now Online!

To The Point Link

Thank you Glenda Lovejoy!

To the Point

Horizons Helps Prepare Community Newsletter

Look for Lyle's largest newsletter coming to your mailboxes soon! This edition contains many informative and engaging articles contributed by a diverse group of local residents. Thank you all for caring and sharing!

Plenty of Leaders!

Lyle's Leadership Plenty has just finished it's nine module training program designed to give citizens skills to take civic action. 

Leadership Plenty promotes the philosophy that, "Everyone is a member of a community and every community is continually changing. Everybody wants to live in places where they have a chance to thrive," and "For communities to thrive it takes people from all parts of the community working together to solve problems and create new ideas and a new collective vision for their ideal community." 

Over 20 new community leaders who participated in the leadership training are now looking forward to incorporating their new skills as they move towards the possibilities of creating a more thriving community. As the program states, "In order to successfully create thriving communities, it takes the power of many with the skills and relationships to take action to change things that need to be changed, keep what is needed, and start imagining a different future for us all."

The Old Primary School Building and Park

What To Do With The Old Primary School Building?

Barbara Sexton, Vern Harpole

A small committee from Horizons met with School Superintendent Martin Huffman on Thursday March 19. The subject: “What can the Community do to help the school district resolve the problems with the old “Primary School Building”? They were very impressed with Mr. Huffman’s work in maintaining the building since it was decommissioned in 1996, and learned it is a big drain on the school budget. But, Mr. Huffman was very receptive to ideas from the community to make the space and building usable again if someone or some group could relieve the school district of the financial burden.
The committee then advanced to the School Board meeting that evening, where there was a larger audience of about 15-20 interested Horizon and Community members in attendance. The group led by Vern Harpole and Barbara Sexton asked for the following from the school board:

1. A delay in the demolition plans, to give the community a chance to look for alternatives.
2. Reports and updates concerning the old school will be put on the School Board’s agenda each month.
3. A committee will be formed to collect information on cost alternatives, community interest and propose solutions to help the school board.

Common goals for this project would be:

• Finding a way to defray the costs to the district
• Thriving community = thriving school
• Useable community space
• Shared responsibility and Community involvement.

Initial work has been done by the Horizon Project and was briefly explained. It was noted the Horizon’s Study Circles came to the conclusion the community needs an activity center and suggest the school building would be the ideal place.
All who are interested in developing a solution that will benefit the town and school district are encouraged to attend a meeting Monday April 13, 7 PM in the basement of The Lyle United Methodist Church. This project really concerns the welfare of our town, and will require lots of help, expertise, energy, and money. If you have questions or are ready to help, please contact Vern at vharpole@aol.com or at (509)480-2607.

LAMBS CUP* Raffle

In keeping with Lyle’s proud heritage of being the sheep shipping capitol of the West Coast, a raffle will be held as part of the annual Clean-Up called the “LAMBS CUP” Raffle.

The following individuals and businesses have offered raffle items as a token of their appreciation Lyle’s efforts:

· Country Café

· Country Store

· Domaine Pouillon Winery

· Full Throttle Espresso

· Lyle Merc

· Milestone Nursery

· Northwest Realty Group – Colleen Connolly

· Northwest Realty Group – Sara Abell

· Oren Johnson

· Syncline Winery

· The Tap Room

· Watching Woman Productions

Everyone who brings items to the clean-up drop site on April 10^th and 11th will be given a raffle ticket for each full clean-up bag (up to 5) dropped-off or for each pick-up load of larger items. Simply fill out your name and contact information and drop the tickets in the raffle box at the Lyle Twin Bridges Museum located in the old elementary school. The Museum will be open during the clean up. It’s a neat place and we are using this opportunity to encourage residents to check it out.

Raffle winners will be contacted the week after the clean-up. Winners will receive their official LAMBS CUP certificate to be presented to the local business establishment to redeem their raffle prize.

Prizes will be simple but given with lots of love and support for this great town.

*(Lyle Area Merchants and Businesses Support of the Clean Up Program)

Get Ready for the Annual Lyle Clean-Up!

Once again, the Lyle Community Council is organizing the annual Lyle Spring Clean-Up to be held Friday and Saturday, April 10^th and 11^th from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Dumpsters will be located in Lyle’s school bus yard on Hwy 14.

«New for this year’s Clean-Up:

1) All loose garbage, like grass clippings, leaves or small bits of paper must be in bags. This is to prevent the organizers from having to chase down loose garbage that blows around.

2) Recycling will be accepted. It must be in the clear blue recycling bags which will be available at the drop-off site.

3) A raffle will be held in conjunction with the clean-up. See the article on the “LAMBS CUP Raffle” elsewhere in this newsletter.

This event is intended to help our community clean-up and reduce fire hazards. We are targeting waste accumulating in the back of garages, old appliances lying around, litter that collected under snow last winter, brush and tree limbs and even burn barrels that are not used. It is not intended for daily household waste which will not be accepted.

Other Clean-Up information that you need to know:

• No charge for trash drop-off although donations to the Lyle Community Council are greatly appreciated and will be used for other community projects.


• Each household may bring 2 light truck/passenger vehicle tires per pick-up load.


• No car parts or cement chunks over 6 inches can be accepted.


• A local truck will be available to haul household appliances. A small fee will be charged for refrigerators, air conditioners and freezers.


• A local truck is also available to haul scrap metal.


• No hazardous material, including liquid paint, cleaning supplies, motor oil, aerosol cans with contents, batteries, etc. These items cannot be accepted!
  

Prior to the event, volunteers will be distributing fliers and garbage bags to residences within the Lyle city limits. Additional bags are available at the Lyle Merc. Our thanks and appreciation goes to Allied Waste Services for their generous support for this annual community project!

Cultural Event Comes to Lyle

Click here to enlarge

What's "springing" in Lyle?

Spring seems stubburn this year. I swear that I remember Lyle's daffodils blooming every year for my birthday on March 2nd. But, alas they are up and ready to go, but don't seem to have any intention of opening in this wet, chilly weather. But I do have lovely crocuses blooming, and the robins are here and the helibore is looking spring like. What is springing in your yard?

Pictured here is Lyle in early spring (aka late winter) viewed from Tom McCall bluff on Oregon side of the river. Looks pretty chilly! Picture taken 2/16/09.

Next Leadership Plenty Meeting

Click on image to enlarge

Friday Blog Workshop

Great success!
Look for new posting from everyone who attended.

School/community integration efforts

A group of Horizons participants ( Dr. Vern Harpole, Barbara Sexton, Oren Johnson and Bob Hansen) met with Lyle High School Principle Phil Williams and Martin Huffman yesterday, February, 26th, to explore ways to increase school/community integration. The following is a DRAFT of the results of that meeting. The results have yet to be reviewed by all participants.

Phil and Martin,

Thank you for the very informative and product conversation we had yesterday. The following are my notes that best reflect my understanding of current procedures and possible outcomes and responsibilities.

In general, the notion of community service has evolved over the past 20 years. No longer do high school students simply do community service. Rather their "community service" requirement can be met in one of four ways, as a Culminating Project:

1) Research project

2) Original artistic creation or performance

3) Job Shadow or Internship

4) Community Involvement or Service

If the Horizons program, or any other program, wants to provide a possible community involvement project, they need to develop a summary of what is involved ( what, when, where, why, etc). A project/resource form is attached which will be entered in to a data base for reference by students and school administration. All projects are voluntary and at the mutual descretation of the students and faculty.

Other possible ways of integrating the community and the school:

1) Assemblies ( for presentations by such groups as Native Americans)

2) Art exhibits by high school students at local venues

3) Monthly movies... the idea is that a group of students and community volunteers could learn to operate the movie projector and the popular movies could be restored.

4) Increased coverage of school activities in the Lyle newsletter... similar to what is happening in Dallesport. This could lead to an eventual merging of community and school news into a single newsletter, saving the school the printing and distribution costs.

5) Dr. Harpole indicated a willingness to help the school with physical examinations sports teams participants.

6) Providing announcements of opportunities

7) Possible vendor opportunities to raise funds for the three main groups... Play It Forward, Honor Society, and Renaissance Club

8) Presentations on Wednesday at weekly meetings of Play It Forward, Honor Society and Renaissance Club

8) Greater involvement by the community in the Renaissance Club activities

9) Involvement in the after school program administered by the ESD from 3-5 pm. Involvement could include presentations and service projects. This program might be mostly for 7th-8th graders. It appears that there is a lot of competition for students time.. between school, sports, family activities, and computer/iPod time.

10) Community members could integrate with the school by helping at athletic events including working the gate and moving the chains at football games.

11) High School student representative on Lyle Community Council and/or student report at Lyle Community Council meetings ( so the students do not have to stay for entire meetings)

12) Help with plays. Volunteer opportunities could be listed in the community newsletter. To facilitate that, someone from the community ( and a student?) need(s) to be identified to get the information to Glenda Lovejoy.



Some of the constraints in community/school integration include

1) lack of money or other resources

2) student safety and liability issues

3) background checks of volunteers

4) transportation in school buses only.. no private vehicles

Blog Workshop

Click on picture to enlarge

It's time to get together and share our blog skills

If you would like to learn or teach some new blogging strategies, we would love to have you join the Blog workshop on the following dates:

Friday February 27th or 

Monday March 2nd.

Times to be determined by participants.

Bring your laptop with you or we will have one for you to use.

It's always fun to learn new tricks!

For more details call (541) 993-4061

Leadership Plenty is Fantastic!!

Why not spend the day engaged in 

stimulating conversation,

personal growth,

friendship building,

community organization,

social activism,

genuine fun,

thoughtful reflection, and

fabulous gourmet food! (Thank you Sherri and Karen)

            Photo by Marcia Buser

Come Saturday to the Leadership Plenty meeting...

What would you rather do instead?

Save the Date!

Something special is coming to Lyle on May 15th.
You will definitely want to be in town that day for an extraordinary event.

More details will be posted.
Check back soon.

Not too late to join LeadershipPlenty!

The next phase of our Horizons program, Leadership Plenty, started January 31st. You are invited to join us now in this interesting opportunity! The name was chosen in recognition of the “plenty” of talents we have among us!

LeadershipPlenty is nationally recognized as one of the best leadership programs. You can find information about the knowledge and skills one learns, as well as research documenting the effectiveness of the training in community development work on the web site: http://www.pew-partnership.org/lpinstitute.html

It is very exciting to have this opportunity in Lyle and there is still time to join the class. The skills we learn can be applied in many situations at work and communities, both large and small. They can be applied to organizing community events (large or small), facilitating meetings or being an effective participant in one, or helping the community or a group identify problems and effective solutions. Completion of Leadership Plenty can be listed on a resume to enhance to one’s employment credentials.

Some people have expressed concern that taking this training means you will be a “leader” in the Horizons program. That is not a requirement. Leadership and all participation are voluntary. This training helps us be more effective participants as well as leaders. We all have knowledge and talents that can strengthen our community. The classes help us bond with other community members as well.

The next four classes will be held every other Saturday at the United Methodist Church on 4th and Klickitat Streets at 9:00 AM. Specific dates are: Feb. 14, Feb 28, March 14, March 28.
Lunch and snacks are provided.

If you are interested in joining us in taking the LeadershipPlenty training, please contact Barbara Sexton at 541 993-5374 or madison@gorge.net.

Leadership Plenty Starting Soon!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Horizons Planning Meeting Minutes

Click on the above title link to see the minutes from the Horizons Planning Meeting held on January 16, 2009.

Action Forum Committees Coming Soon!

New Lyle Community Committees will be starting soon!

Stay tuned for notices on the upcoming meetings' dates, locations, and times.

Lyle Horizons Action Forum

WHAT WILL THE NEW YEAR BRING?

If you could make one thing happen in Lyle for the upcoming year,

what would it be?

Share your New Year's wishes here!

Would it be a new business? 

Or an infrastructure improvement? 

Maybe an art, cultural, or recreational event?

How about a community transportation, education, or health care service?

Let's share some dreams. What would you like to see happen in Lyle in 2009?

 

Action Forum Sunday January 4th

It's finally going to happen!

Lyle Horizons Action Forum Sunday, January 4th at the Lions Community Center from 1:00-4:00 p.m.

This Sunday at the Lions Community Center the Horizons Action Forum will take place starting at 1:00 p.m.

Bring your ideas, suggestions, creative plans, and appetites and join us for this important community event.

Lunch will be served.

Everyone welcome.

Bring a neighbor or a Lyle friend.

Action Forum Postponed!

Due to the blustery winter weather, the Action Forum scheduled for Sunday, December 21 has been rescheduled for Sunday, January, 4th at 1:00 p.m. at the Lions Community Center. We look forward to coming together then, and sharing all the thoughtful ideas we have discussed over the past weeks. Stay safe and warm. 

Sunday Snow Day

Oh what fun they were having today playing on 

4th Street in Lyle!

Ideas for the Elementary School

Lyle citizens have been asked to share their thoughts on what shall become of the Lyle Elementary School located in the heart of our community on the corner of Third Street and Hiway 14. It is currently owned and maintained by the Lyle School District # 406 but school administration have indicated a need to reassess the current status of its use. The Lyle Twin Bridges Historical Museum occupies one of the old schoolrooms, and the skate park and green area have been enjoyed by youth and families through many seasons.

 What do you think? What would you like to see happen to this building and the park? Let's talk about it!

Action Forum December 21, 2008

It's a Lyle Celebration!

Local residents have met for 5 weeks to identify the needs of Lyle's Citizens. Now it's time to determine what our first community project should be.

Come and hear the proposals at the Action Forum and be involved in the selection process.

All Lyle residents are invited.

Meal Provided.

Lions Community Center

December 21, 1:00-4:00 p.m.

Helping Neighbors

Does anyone know of a neighbor or community member who might need help during this cold, snowy weather with shoveling snow, getting to the store, doctor, etc.? I can help. 

Meeting Place

We can hold the leadership plenty meeting in the basement at the Lyle United Methodist Church. The Pastor was very happy to say yes, this is what a church is all about, supporting the Community.
Barbara

Hey Peoples..

I'm trying to figure this thing out and hoping that I'm doing it right. I can't find the place to read other people's comments so I just decided to let you know this old brain is slow in the understanding department...and I took lessons!! Don't know if I'm suppose to sign out with my name or it will be automatic...here goes.. Mildred.

Horizons Statewide Training

Seven Lyle residents attended the statewide Horizons training in Spokane, WA on December 2-4. The Three day event, hosted by the Northwest Area Foundation and WSU Extension, brought people together from 40 small rural communities to address issues of poverty reduction and increased leadership skills. 

Lyle citizens are looking forward to the possibilities that lie ahead. A new round of community engagement will be coming up after the first of the year. This next phase titled, LeadershipPlenty, consists of nine modules that address primary civic skills that allow community members to confidently identify local problems and implement a plan of action to combat those problems. 

There have been many accomplishments achieved in Lyle during the first Study Circle phase. Over 40 people joined together to discuss the needs of our community throughout the past five weeks. Now, we are eager to take the next step in selecting and implementing ideas that will benefit Lyle. Join us on December 21st for the Action Forum at the Lions Community Center from 1:00-4:00 and help shape the future of Lyle.