Plan to attend the upcoming rain barrel workshop from the Jefferson County Extension Service on October 16 from 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. at 810 Barret Avenue.  You will learn how to build and install a rain barrel.  You’ll go home with a completed rain barrel and with the knowledge to build more.  The cost is $50 and includes all materials and tools.  Payment must be received by October 7.  To reserve a spot please contact Sarah Stolz at 569-2344 or click here. 

From the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement:

The cooler weather and fall foliage make October a perfect time to get out and explore the city on foot. The Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement and the YMCA encourage you to discover the many benefits of walking and find a new path to fitness during October. Some say walking is the perfect exercise. It burns calories, reduces stress, improves muscle tone, helps prevent osteoporosis – without putting excessive pressure on bones and joints. And all it requires is a pair of shoes!  For a list of walks/runs for a good cause or a list of great places to walk, click here.

Share your walking experiences with us. Send us a photo or a comment via email at Walktober@louisvilleky.gov.  Tell us why you walk.  Post photos of you and your walking group, you walking your dog, or what you see on your walks to the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Facebook page or on Twitter.  Use hash tag #walktoberlou.

The Bardstown Road CycLOUvia event is scheduled for Sunday, October 13 from 2:00 – 6:00 p.m. on Bardstown/Baxter from Broadway to the Douglass Loop.  The roadways will close to vehicular traffic to become a paved linear park, where residents and visitors can bike, walk, skate, dance, or participate in other programmed activities.  Besides offering a safe and exciting new way to experience Louisville, cycLOUvia helps to promote healthy lifestyles, alternative transportation options, bicycle and pedestrian safety, and economic development. In an age where most Louisvillians move predominantly by car, bringing congestion and toxic fumes to streets across the city, cycLOUvia helps to make Louisville a more active, healthy, and livable city.  CycLOUvia events also meet the goals of the city’s Healthy Hometown Movement, which helps to establish healthier places, programs and policies toward making Louisville one of the healthiest cities in the country.  Learn more here.

The Healthy Foods, Local Farms Conference will take place on Saturday, October 12  at the Kentucky Country Day School in Louisville.  The theme of this year's conference is “Food Sustainability and Justice."  This year's featured speaker is Barton Seaver, director of Healthy and Sustainable Food Program at the Center for Health and Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a chef, author, and National Geographic Fellow.  Other speakers include Wenona Hauter, National Director of Food & Water Watch, and Dr. Michele Morek, coalition coordinator for UNANIMA International, a nongovernmental organization for the United Nations.  

The conference cost is $35, which includes lunch, snacks, and conference materials.  All food served is local, sustainably grown, and seasonal.  Click here to purchase tickets for the conference. Scholarships are available. Contact Aloma Dew at (270) 316-0334 or by email at alomadew@hotmail.com.

Let’s all do our part to use less water during rain events.  The less water we use when it is raining, the more we help reduce combined sewer overflows. Most of District 9 drains to the combined sewer system, which means that stormwater and sewage from our toilets go to the same place to be treated.  During a rain event, the combined sewer can fill with stormwater, causing untreated sewage to overflow into Beargrass Creek and other bodies of water.   

There are simple steps that we can all take to lessen the chance of combined sewer overflows during rain events.  Wait to run your dishwasher or washing machine until 24 hours after a rain event.  Learn more on MSD’s Project Win website, where you can also check the overflow advisory level.  If the advisory level is red, it means that there has been significant rainfall that may cause an overflow.  This alerts you to wait to wash that next load of laundry, and is also a warning to stay out of local creeks for at least 48 hours, due to possible overflows.   Learn about more ways to lessen your storm water impact.