Beginning with a street cleanup along Glenn Street from Division to Calhoun in March, another along Hillcrest from Chestnut Expressway to Nichols, and ending with the annual neighborhood cleanup on June 1, Bissett Neighborhood Association focused on keeping the neighborhood clean this spring. Many thanks go out to the numerous volunteers who helped out!

Neighborhood cleanup

Thanks to the City of Springfield for paying for the dumpsters, to Community Partnership of the Ozarks for co-sponsoring the event and helping with coordination, and to Bissett Elementary for making its parking lot available for the event. About five dumpsters full of tons of trash and three full of brush were hauled off. BNA made about two dozen curbside pickups and collected and sold scrap metal, earning $79 for the association. Donations came in at over $120. Habitat for Humanity joined forces with us during the cleanup to tidy up additional homes and yards in the neighborhood. In all, more than 80 homes got cleaned up. Special thanks also go out to Daylight Donuts on West Bypass and to Little Caesar’s Pizza for donating doughnuts and pizza for our volunteers.

In addition to cleanups, BNA held regular membership meetings on the second Tuesdays of February, April and May. They included potluck dinners for friendly socializing and featured speakers. In February, we learned about the then-proposed bond issue for improvements to Springfield Public Schools from Friends of the SPS. In April, Jamie Orlando, our new Springfield-Greene County Health Department community health advocate told us about improvements planned for the CHA program. In May, Keith Donaldson spoke about bicycle safety.

Last but not least, BNA joined forces with neighborhood associations across the city by continuing participating in the Neighborhood Advisory Council and helping out with their two NAC-sponsored City Council candidate forums held ahead of last April’s election.

Clean, safe and friendly – that’s what it means to be a Great Neighborhood in Springfield (visit springfieldmo.gov/greatneighborhoods for more information on this designation). With activities throughout the spring aiming at those characteristics, Bissett has been continually earning this designation.

Annual YardZale set for July 20

Inspired by last year’s inaugural and very successful neighborhood-wide yard sale, dubbed the YardZale, we’ll be holding this year’s big sale 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday, July 20. Last year we had over 40 participating yards, and are expecting more this year! We’ll have information available on Facebook and elsewhere, or just come to the neighborhood on the day of the sale and look for the many YardZale signs.

If you stop at one of the sales, just ask for a free map of all the other participating homes. If you live in Bissett and would like to participate, call Chandra at 417-818-0206.  She’ll fill you in on how you can register your home for the sale and get one of those fancy YardZale signs put up in your yard for the event!