You may have already seen these beautiful, hand-decorated eggs for sale at Flowers By Kristil and elsewhere. Chances are, they were created by Marilyn Walther or one of her students. Marilyn is offering classes in some different methods of egg decorating. Space is limited and this is a fundraiser for her son, Michael, who is going to High Adventure Scout Camp this summer.

Cost is $30, which includes materials, supplies and eggs. There are four available dates and times:

Saturday, March 21st from 2 to 5 PM
Saturday, March 28th from 2 to 5 PM
Wednesday, April 8th from 2 to 5 PM (during Spring Break)
Thursday, April 9th from 2 to 5 PM (also during Spring Break)

Classes are limited to 4 people, and are held at the Walther Cabin, 10200 Steamboat Island Road.

• Learn the wax-resist (batik) method.
• Learn the Slovak/Polish technique and designs.
• Learn a little about the history and culture of egg-decorating.
• Develop your own designs.
• Create 2 to 3 eggs to take home with you!

Call Marilyn at 866-8792 to reserve your space at one of these classes. Gather your friends and reserve a class!

And, tell Marilyn you read it on the blog of the Griffin Neighborhood Association.

“Four public meetings are scheduled in March from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. to hear citizens’ views and knowledge on eight requirements elements of the Shoreline Master Program.” So reads the Thurston County Long Range Planning page describing the Shoreline Master Plan Update process on which the County is now engaged. According to documents on the web site of the Thurston Regional Planning Council, “The goal of this Master Program is to preserve to the fullest possible extent the scenic, aesthetic and ecological qualities of the Shorelines of the Thurston Region in harmony with those uses which are deemed essential to the life and well-being of its citizens.”

Thurston County’s Shoreline Master Program was last updated in 1990, before new state guidelines were approved in 2003. Thurston County must update its plan by 2011 in order to be consistent with the latest state requirements.

One of four regional public meetings will be held right here at the Griffin Fire Station.
Wednesday, March 11
6 to 8 PM
Griffin Fire Hall
3707 Steamboat Loop Rd NW
Olympia, WA 98502

At regional workshops beginning March 4, 2009, Thurston County will turn to citizens for help in crafting policies for eight required elements for the Shoreline Master Program update.

• An economic development element for the location and design of industries, industrial projects of statewide significance, transportation facilities, port facilities, tourist facilities, commerce, and other developments that are particularly dependent on their location on or use of shorelines of the state

• A public access element making provision for public access to publicly owned areas

• A recreational element for the preservation and enlargement of recreational opportunities, including, but not limited to, parks, tidelands, beaches, and recreational areas

• A circulation element consisting of the general location and extent of existing and proposed major thoroughfares, transportation routes, terminals, and other public utilities and facilities, all correlated with the shoreline use element

• A use element which considers the proposed general distribution and general location and extent of the use on shorelines and adjacent land areas for housing, business, industry, transportation, agriculture, natural resources, recreation, education, public buildings and grounds, and other categories of public and private uses of the land

• A conservation element for the preservation of natural resources, including, but not limited to, scenic vistas, aesthetics, and vital estuarine areas for fisheries and wildlife protection

• An historic, cultural, scientific, and educational element for the protection and restoration of buildings, sites, and areas having historic, cultural, scientific, or educational values

• An element that gives consideration to the statewide interest in the prevention and minimization of flood damages

Planners also will ask citizens to help map out shoreline designations.

Shorelines and shoreline protection are integral to our way of life here in the Griffin area. I hope the area homeowners will take this opportunity to become involved in the effort to update the County’s Shoreline Master Plan.

Click here for the Thurston Regional Planning Council’s page, including downloadable pieces of the 1990 Shoreline Master Plan.

Click here for the County’s pages on the process for updating the Shoreline Master Plan.

UPDATED: Click here to see the brief article in the Olympian, regarding the efforts to update the Plan.

– MARK MESSINGER

Maybe you weren’t aware, but the Griffin Neighborhood Association offers an online discussion group, called “GriffinNeighbors,” which is available to all area residents. You don’t have to be a member of the GNA to participate. The GriffinNeighbors discussion group is a way for local residents to discuss issues of importance to one another, send out announcements of upcoming events of interest to the local community, and make plans. Using the power of a free service, called Yahoo! Groups, local residents can get the word out fast and easy.

With the GriffinNeighbors discussion group, local residents subscribe – they choose to become members of the free group, or they don’t. There’s no spamming, since the group isn’t open to the entire world. To become a member, send an email to griffinneighbors-owner@yahoogroups.com and tell us you want to join and roughly where you live. We’ll send you an invitation and, if you respond, you’re in.

Then, whenever you want to send a message out to everyone in the group, just send an email to griffinneighbors@yahoogroups.com. Your message is copied out and sent to everyone in the group.

Messages come to you with a subject line that begins with “[Griffin Neighbors]” so it’s easy to see what’s coming from the group and, if you want, to send those messages to different email folders.

If you receive a message from the group, and want to reply, just click “Reply” and your reply is sent back to everyone in the group. Careful, though! If you want to reply only to the person who sent the message to the group, click “Forward” and forward your message to only the person who sent it.

“But,” you say, “I don’t want to be peppered with email messages, day and night!” The GriffinNeighbors discussion group allows you to participate in a way that works for you. Sure, you can choose to receive every message, in your email inbox, as soon as it comes across the discussion group. But, you can choose to receive a “daily diary.” That’s a single email that contains copies of all messages sent across the discussion group that day.

A third option is to choose to receive only “Special Notices”. These are very rarely sent, so your inbox won’t get much mail, at all, from the GriffinNeighbors discussion group. If you choose to receive only special notices, you can read all the messages by going to the group’s web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/griffinneighbors/ With a free Yahoo! ID, you can log on to the group and read an archive of all messages that have been sent across the group.

What else can subscribers do, on the GriffinNeighbors discussion group? Well, with a free Yahoo! ID, subscribers can share photos, share links to other destinations on the web, share files, and poll the group subscribers.

Recently, subscribers to the GriffinNeighbors group have discussed hunting on Eld Inlet, events such as the installation of a local forest garden, criminal activity in the area, and possible locations for a new readerboard to be purchased for the Griffin School District.

So, here’s your invitation to join the GriffinNeighbors Discussion group and join in the conversation. Email griffinneighbors-owner@yahoogroups.com with your request to join the group today.