Our Towne

■ Baldwin County Master Gardeners: Workshops to be held at Gulf Coast Research Center, HWY 104, Fairhope. Admission is $5 per workshop. Call Laurie for information (251) 928-6966

Remember the Native Plant Sale will be held across from Week's Bay Preserve on April 9th-11th. And, if you have gardening questions call the Baldwin County Helpline: 1-877252-4769.

■Brown Bag by the Bay: Catt's Sunday Brunch Radio Avalon and the City of Daphne present a free lunchtime series of concerts. Bring your lunch to May Day Park Thursdays in April and May for music and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.. Parking is available and a shuttle will be available to take you up the hill from the amphitheater to the parking lot. Talent is local. First concert this year will be on April 1st! May Day Park is undergoing work, check with the City for details on concerts.

■Second Saturday Series: The Bay Rivers Art Guild (BRAG) offers short courses from 9-noon, a $30 fee and the opportunity to learn a new art form with hands on experience. January 9th: Art Fix It Clinic with Barbara Thomas, February 13th: Mardi Gras, March 13th: Use a Grid to Draw with Valley O'Neal. April 10th, Bunnies!! With Carolyn Newcomer and May 8th, found Object Art with Provie Musso. For information contact BRAG at 521-0659, bayriverartguild@bellsouth.net or check out their web-site at : www.bragart.org. Classes are held at the BRAG 1704 6th Street.

■Town Hall Meeting: Thursday, August 20th will mark a special event on the Eastern Shore when Congressman Jo Bonner, Senator Jeff Sessions and Senator Richard Shelby join our community leaders of Daphne, Fairhope and Spanish Fort for a informative event regarding environmental and transportation issues for the future. Plan to attend and be part of the conversation. The event will be held at the Civic Center from 5:30- 7:00 p.m. Hot dogs will be available at the start of the event. Please click on the attached information pdf for details: Info.

■Pig in the Park Chef Will Hughes cooks for SEEDS !! Saturday June 27th in Jubilee Courtyard on Main Street, Daphne. $10 Plated lunch includes Chef Will's great barbecue pork and side items. Drawing and raffle all day from 10:00 to 6:00. $5 from each plate purchased benefits SEEDS classroom enrichment initiatives in Daphne.

■ Invitation: Come and See the proposed new site for the Bay Rivers Art Guild on Sunday, March 29th at the Nicholson Center on Captain O'Neal Drive and College Ave across from May Day Park. Click: Invitation for a copy or your invitation to this community event!

■Second Saturday Series: The Bay Rivers Art Guild (BRAG) offers short courses from 9-noon, a $30 fee and the opportunity to learn a new art form with hands on experience. March 14th: Introduction to Colored Pencils with Nancy Wininger, May 9th: Introduction to Painting on Porcelain with Kirsten Bradley and June 13th: Fresh Flower Arranging with Pat Ernst. For information contact BRAG at 521-0659, bayriverartguild@bellsouth.net or check out their web-site at : www.bragart.org. Classes are held at the BRAG 1704 6th Street.

■Update your CPR skills with the Daphne Fire Department at Fire Station #2 on North Main Street. The course is free. Certification requires a written test and and there is a $3.00 charge for the American Heart Association certification card. Courses are scheduled for March 18th (Wednesday), April 17th (Friday), May 14th (Thursday) and June 16th (Tuesday). First Aid classes will also be offered. Contact Dan Castrillo at 621-2802 for further information.

■Dear Press and Citizens: The City Council of Daphne have been invited to discuss road improvement issues in the Lake Forest Subdivision by the Lake Forest Improvement Committee. In order to observe the sunshine law, I am posting and informing the press and general public that the meeting will be held at the Lake Forest Country Club at the 19th Hole Grill on January 8, 2009 at 6:30 P.M. Please contact Henry Lawson if you have any questions with regard to this meeting.

■OTDA encourages you to come to a Community Meeting on Tuesday, January 13th to discuss neighborhood concerns regarding the renewal of a business license for the Townsend Recovery Center (www.TownsendRecovery.com). The program is designed to treat opiate addicts with the drug Suboxone (www.suboxone.com ). Townsend Recovery Center is currently located on the Mercy Medical Hospital campus in Olde Towne. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. in the Library. Click on Flyer to read neighborhood concerns. For further information contact Christopher Hill at 626-7075 .

■ Weeks Bay Native Plant Sale will be held at Safe Harbor on US HWY 98, across from Weeks Bay Reserve. Shrubs, perennials, butterfly plants, trees, wetland plants and more will be on sale from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Come early for the best selection! Proceeds help pay for projects at the Weeks Bay Preserve. Call 928-9792 for information.

■Brown Bag by the Bay: Catt's Sunday Brunch Radio Avalon and the City of Daphne present a free lunchtime series of concerts. Bring your lunch to May Day Park Thursdays in September and October for music and lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.. Parking is available and a shuttle will be available to take you up the hill from the amphitheater to the parking lot. Talent is local and the schedule includes:

September 18th: Chad and the Gang (jazz, blues-featuring Theodore Arthur of Bobby Blue Bland's Band

■The statue of Daphne will be unveiled on Thursday, October 25th at 8:30 a.m. during Coffee with the Mayor. Meet the artist Fran Neumann and thank members of the community who contributed time and funds to make this happen!

■Golf Anyone? October 10, 2008 the Trailblazers will host a Fairways to Trailways golf tournament, four person scramble. This fundraiser will help city and Baldwin County governments match federal funds for completing trails throughout the county. For information contact tournament chairman B.J. Guido at (251) 929-0167 or www.thetrailblazers.org.

■Katrina-Damaged Museum Needs Cookbooks

Liz Williams, president of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, is sending out an SOS to home cooks, bakers and culinary professionals. She estimates that the museum lost over half of its cookbook collection to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. An eternal optimist, Liz is working hard to transform tragedy into opportunity by taking on the ambitious project of rebuilding the museum's library to be the world's most complete repository of books, booklets, manuscripts, and documents about Southern food and drink. In order to accomplish this, Liz needs cookbooks -- and lots of them!

The museum is not only seeking culinary books about the American South, but also volumes from areas that have influenced Southern foodways. This means all new and used food-themed books, in all conditions (food-spattered and beat-up is just fine), dealing with cuisines from all over the world. Liz emphasizes that they're seeking everything from professionally written cookbooks and culinary histories to community cookbooks and pamphlets. In Liz's own words: "We're truly looking for one of everything!" (The museum will find good homes for any duplicates.)

The address for (fully tax-deductible) donations is:

Southern Food & Beverage Museum

attn. Liz Williams

1 Poydras Street, #169

New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

For more info about the museum or this project, please visit southernfood.org (click on "collections," then "library") or email liz@southernfood.org. If you do send a book donation, Liz asks that you please make sure to include your name and address so the museum can acknowledge your generosity.

The three mayoral candidates to date, Ernie Berger, Harry Brown and Fred Small, have agreed to participate. Each candidate will be given equal time to outline their ideas and visions for the future of Daphne. The candidates will then answer questions from the audience. This is your first chance to meet the candidates, listen to their plans, ask questions and determine which candidate best represent your interests and desires as a citizen.

■ Pig in the Park Chef Will Hughes cooks for SEEDS !! Saturday May 31st in Jubilee Courtyard on Main Street, Daphne. Advance tickets $15 or $20 day of the event. Plated lunch includes Chef Will's great barbecue pork, side items and dessert---plus a commemorative t-shirt. Proceeds benefit SEEDS classroom enrichment initiatives in Daphne. Visit www.seedsindaphne.org for details!

■ Arbor Day! Daphne will celebrate Arbor Day on Saturday, February 23rd at Village Point Park from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 noon. There will be 4,900 trees to be given away and information brochures will be provided by the Daphne Beautification Committee. Come early for the best tree selection! Free tours of Jackson's Oak and family activities will be provided.

■A fundraising Benefit for Baldwin County Search and Rescue Squads from Daphne, North Baldwin SAR and South Baldwin SAR in honor of their participation in the recent tragic search operation in Bayou LaBatre. This event is sponsored by the America Legion Post #199, Elks Lodge #1879 and Fairhope Emblem Club #241. The event will be from noon to 9:00 p.m. with an all day Concert, with Lisa Mills , Fat Man Squeeze, Tyler Champion Band, Hank Becker, the ‘Randy Branch’, Jimmy Lee Hannaford, Keith Glass Group, and others to be announced; with a ‘Jubilee Jam/Open Mike’ to be held after 9 p.m. The Elks are having chili and hot dogs, each search and rescue unit shall display equipment and have demos, visiting search dogs, silent & live auctions, a MOONWALK for the kids, & more. Saturday, February 23rd!