The 24th Annual Easter Parade is this Saturday, March 26. The Easter Parade will start around 11:30 am in front of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2822 Frankfort Avenue and will travel to Pope Street (extended this year from Haldeman Avenue) bringing free candy and Easter cheer to thousands of children lining the route. The staging area for the Easter Parade will be between Stilz and Birchwood Avenue and will begin assembly around 10:00 am. Parade participants include the Shriners, Louisville Bagpipe Band, Hwang’s Martial Arts, the Animal House Adoption, the Mounted Sherriff’s Posse, antique cars and trucks, and homemade floats of all kinds.

2016 Grand Marshal is The Louisville City Football Club - our new professional soccer team and of course…the Easter Bunny!

The "Good Ears" awards will be presented to the most creative floats. The Judges station is located in front of the Irish Rover, 2319 Frankfort Avenue. The parade is broadcast live by Crescent Hill Radio WCHQ, 100.9, and emceed by Tara Basset.

Easter Hat Contest will be held following the parade at 1:30 pm at The Hub Louisville, 2235 Frankfort Avenue, Rain or Shine. Categories include Traditional, Most Creative and Upcycled. There will be an adult and junior division (16 and under) in each category.

Easter Pet Costume Contest at Barkstown on Frankfur Avenue, 2005 Frankfort Avenue, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. Woof!

The parade as always is a FREE, family-friendly event. A trolley will run along the Avenue after the parade until 2:00 pm.

Easter Parade Street Closing

• Both lanes of Frankfort Avenue will be closed to traffic from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm from Stilz Avenue to Pope Street.
• There will be NO PARKING on the street at that time and the side streets will be closed to Frankfort Avenue as well. 
• Kennedy Avenue from Grinstead to Frankfort Avenue, Crescent Court around the court and Crescent Avenue from English to Frankfort will be closed to thru traffic during line-up from approx. 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.  

Saturday is also the day for multiple Easter Egg Hunts, check out the Ninth District Events for more information!

Pet Wants East Louisville, a mobile service that delivers the company's own proprietary pet food, will soon have a permanent home and a new name. Business owner Lindsey Whalen will host a grand opening Saturday, March 26, at the new Pet Wants storefront at 1718 Frankfort Avenue.

Events will kick off with a "leash-cutting"ceremony with Mayor Greg Fischer at 10am followed by pet pictures with the Easter Bunny until 5pm. There will also be drawings for a free month of food (customers don't have to be present to win) throughout the day.

Whalen opened Pet Wants late last year because she wanted to provide a new fresh, all-natural pet food option for fellow pet lovers in her community.  Pet Wants' carefully developed proprietary pet food is slow-cooked with fresh, all-natural ingredients. The company has their distributor make the food in small batches once per month so every kibble is guaranteed to be fresh and packed with nutrition.

For those who would still like mobile food delivery, Pet Wants on the Avenue delivers to NuLu, the Highlands, Germantown, St. Matthews, Lyndon, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Crescent Hill, Clifton, Brownsboro Road and Prospect.

To order Pet Wants food for your favorite companion, call (502)627-0026, email LWhalen@PetWants.com or visit http://www.petwantseastlouisville.com.

There are several benefits to composting leaves instead of sending them to the landfill in plastic bags, as we finally quit doing in Jefferson County.  It saves landfill space but it also creates compost.  You can buy some this weekend! 

Experienced gardeners understand the value of adding quality organic amendments to the soil for many different reasons. Some of these reasons are to change the soil structure to improve drainage, improve the oxygen levels in and around the roots, and to create a better overall soil structure for plant growth. Another benefit, depending on the type and source of soil amendment, is the level of nutrients the compost can add to the soil for plants to use as food. 

Municipal compost is a mixture of leaves, chipped tree limbs, and yard waste from various cities, composted into an earthy, well mixed amendment that any home gardener would be happy to use on their garden. This product has become available because many cities, including Louisville, decided to recycle yard and park waste, rather than throw the stuff into the dump at great cost. The greatest value of compost is in the organic matter, which can act as a nutrient buffer and improve the soil structure for a year or two after application. 

Want to learn more about the benefits of compost? Watch this educational video on MetroTV!

Municipal compost is available from Brightside on Saturday, March 26 and on April 30 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Outer Loop Recycling and Disposal Facility, 2673 Outer Loop. Compost fees: $2.50 per bag, $40 per 1 cubic meter scoop 

Click here for a money-saving coupon!

We’d like to feature your sustainability story - a resident or business doing good things for the environment.  Riding the bus, bicycling, walking, gardening and more - our eNews will feature practices which can benefit all of us.  Send your story to Bill Hollander or Kyle Ethridge. 

The Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition will offer free Naloxone (also referred to by its brand name as Narcan®) kits and a training session on how to administer it to reverse the effects of overdose from heroin and other opioid drugs and prevent death. The free training is open to the general public including first responders and to the family and friends of those who use heroin or other opioid drugs. The training will be held on Thursday, March 31 at 6:30 p.m. at Barret Middle School, 2561 Grinstead Drive.

Naloxone is a medication called an “opioid antagonist” used to counter the effects of opioid overdose.  Naloxone is used in heroin and other opioid drug overdoses to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system, allowing an overdose victim to breathe normally.

My office is partnering with the Louisville Asset Building Coalition (LABC) to provide FREE tax preparation services again in 2016. The service is FREE if you earned $55,000 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) or less in 2015 or if you quality for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Call the office today to see if you qualify and make your appointment! Limited appointments are still available on Friday, April 1. Please call the office at 574-3908 to make an appointment.  

Yell Dew Gardens to host a day-long workshop that will feature some of the most knowledgeable tree professionals in the region covering topics ranging from appropriate species and variety selection, care and management and discussions on tree planting programs from around the area. This workshop is designed for everyone from green-industry professionals to developers, municipal managers, neighborhood tree program managers and interested homeowners.  Registration includes a full day of presentations, morning coffee and snacks and a boxed lunch. A follow-up workshop is planned for midsummer at Yew Dell to allow participants to learn tree identification, care and pest diagnosis out in the field.   Advanced registration ($55 Yew Dell Members, $65 Nonmembers) is highly recommended. To register, please visit: www.yewdellgardens/clases-and-events.html

Registration for the Brightside & Passport Health Plan Spring Community-Wide Cleanup on Saturday, April 16th, is now open. The D9 office will sponsor a team. Volunteers will meet at Bingham Park at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Then at 9:00 a.m. we will fan out throughout the District to clean. The District 9 office will provide bags, gloves, tools and t-shirts on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you would like to register your own neighborhood team, please click here: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM