The corner of Laurel and China has seen a lot of action lately. On Sunday night, police evicted three or four squatters who were living in a tent in the backyard of a vacant house. The owner says renovations on the house should be finished this Fall. On Monday afternoon a car going up the wrong the way on Laurel hit a truck that was trying to cross Laurel on China. No word on how serious the injuries were, but this may add to calls for more street signs and traffic enforcement.

A string of small arsons in Oregon Hill and the Fan that took place late Friday night/Saturday morning is being investigated. While the police and fire marshal were on the scene, more trash can fires were reported on Cumberland and in the Fan.

A motorcycle parked in front of a house on the 400 block of Laurel Street exploded after it’s seat was on fire. Fortunately the fire was put out before it spread to any of the nearby wood frame houses.

In checking out the artists’ sites for the show Side Streets opening tonight at the new Glave Kocen Gallery, I found these great location paintings by Melissa Burgess.

A look at the impact and demographics of the now 3-year-old Overlook Townhouses by Baylen Forcier…

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A message from Katie Cowles from the neighborhood nonprofit SynerGeo:

My name is Katie and I’m the volunteer coordinator for SynerGeo. For those of you who are unfamiliar with us, we are a small non-profit at the corner of Albemarle St. and S.Laurel Street here in Oregon Hill. We run Free afterschool art and homework help programs for grades K-5th.

One of our programs, Kids on The Hill, runs on Tuesdays from 3:30- 5:30 and is held at Pine St. Baptist Church. It includes homework help time, bible study, recreation time, special interest groups and dinner. We are looking for volunteers who can spend at least one hour, if not all three with the children. We also still have more room for children to sign up for the program!!!

The special interest groups are a chance for someone to spend time with the chilren teaching them something new like Origami, juggling, drawing techniques, etc. If you have a talent or hobbie that you’d like to share, please feel free to let me know. And if you or anyone you know would like to volunteer at this program, please email me at cowleskatie@yahoo.com and I’ll reply right back with further info. Our program begins THIS TUESDAY @ 3:30.

Please spread the word as I would really like to see some more neighborhood involvement with this!

Katie Cowles
cowleskatie@yahoo.com
www.synergeo.org

All volunteer OHHIC work crew seen at 515 South Laurel this morning.