Letters From Our Readers

Maple Area Residents Launch Website

This is a one-time communication to members and friends of Maple Area Residents, Inc. (MARI) to announce our re-launced web site and provide a brief update on activity in our neighborhood. This web site has the very basic information on MARI, events, MARI committees, membership, how to contact us, and various links. It will be updated frequently by MARI board members who will directly manage the web site to ensure it will be current and a useful resource for our members and residents.

Some other items to note:

• Membership Many are on this e-mail because they have renewed their MARI membership for 2005. If you have not, please consider a membership by visiting our “Membership” Page, print out a form, and send in your registration. We can’t all be active in MARI but we can help support its goals through a membershiop. In the near future the MARI Board will initiate a membership drive in our neighborhood.

• Special Projects Committee We will use this link on the “MARI Committees” page to encouarge members/residents who are interested in leading social, anti-crime, cultural, or community service projects in our neighborhood. If you or someone you know has an interest in leading an activity for MARI, please point them to this committee on the MARI Committees page.

• Events We will will begin to fill the “Events” page with meetings or events of interest. Please check regularly. Board members please use this too as a reminder of upcoming Board meetings (see May 5 board meeting notice on there now!).
  
• Contact Us The web site has a “Contact Us” page that allows you to contact various Board Members who lead the specific committees of MARI. Please use this as a resource to contact us.

• Zoning Committee This Committee’s activities on the “MARI Committees” page will soon be updated with various significant zoning matters that MARI is tracking or actively involved in. One significant activity that is developing is the construction of C’est Si Bon (formerly Foodies) at the corner of Cherokee and St. Charles Avenue. Several neighbors have reported that the owner intendes to operate a restaurant 24 hours a day/7 days a week (like the St. Charles Tavern) and seek an Alcohol permit as well. MARI already has notified Safety and Permits of the many restrictions in place as this site is zoned residential with a non-conforming use that will not allow such activity. Update soon on the web site.

Thank you for your support of MARI.

David Bendana
Secretary/Board Member
Maple Area Residents, Inc.