Celebrating clean water resources in our community and beyond, the City of Goshen Stormwater Department is hosting Goshen Water Fest at Mill Street Park (212 Prospect Ave.) on Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

The event will feature the unveiling of the 2022 storm drain mural art project and voting for a “People’s Choice” award winning artist. The theme of the project this year was “Dreaming of Clean Water” with the goal of raising awareness about the connection between the City’s storm drains and clean water.

To further that goal, the event will also feature a clean-up of Rock Run Creek and the surrounding neighborhood. Crews will be leaving from the main event center at regular intervals to participate.

Most storm drains in Goshen connect directly to waterways without any treatment—meaning trash and other debris in our roadways ends up directly in our rivers and streams.

City of Goshen Stormwater Specialist Mattie Lehman said Mill Street Park, which is located just north of Rock Run Creek, is a perfect example of how our community benefits from clean water resources. Moreover, it presents an opportunity to clean up an important waterway that flows through Goshen.

“We are excited to bring a major celebration to the northside neighborhood and hope that this might be the first Water Fest of many to come,” she said.

Thanks to several partnering organizations and entities, Water Fest will also have a number of water related kids activities and learning opportunities. Adults and kids alike wishing to participate fully in the event’s activities should be prepared for a soak! This will be a walk/bike event as parking at Mill Street Park is extremely limited. Attendees should plan to enter the event via the Maple City Greenway. An interactive event map with suggested parking and walking routes is available on the event page: www.goshenindiana.org/water-fest. Storm drain mural art locations have been positioned strategically along walk/bike routes to the event and secure bike parking will be available.

Brush pickup for the month of May begins May 31, 2022.

During scheduled brush collections, the Street Department will make only one pass through the city to pick up brush. Please have your brush by the front curb, but not in the street, by that first day in the morning at 7 a.m. Brush will not be picked up in alleys. The piles of brush should be trash-free. Crews cannot access the piles if blocked by vehicles.

For information regarding Dial-A-Trailer and the Brush Trailer, go to goshenindiana.org/street-department.

The next summer brush pick up weeks will begin on the following days:

• June 27, 2022
• July 25, 2022
• August 29, 2022
• September 26, 2022 — last brush pickup of the year

All City of Goshen offices will be closed Monday, May 30 due to the Memorial Day holiday.

Garbage pickup will be delayed by one day the week of May 30. Trash will be collected starting on Tuesday, May 31, with a delay by one day.

Due to the holiday, the Goshen Board of Works Meeting has been canceled.

Join Mayor Jeremy Stutsman for his annual Bike to Work Week Bike Ride, plus live music, food trucks and family activities at the City’s Backyard Bike-In event Saturday, May 14 at Powerhouse Park.

The Backyard Bike-In runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with the bike ride beginning at 10:30 a.m. The route will lead residents through the City’s new temporary Cycle Track, giving many a first glance at the bicycle lanes reserved on Lincoln Avenue between 5th and 8th streets.

See the route here.

Following the bike ride, local bands Shiny, Shiny Black and McLane & Co. will perform until 1 p.m. There will be life-sized yard games, a bike check-up station from Lincoln Avenue Cycling, food trucks from Sweazy Q and Rulli’s Pizza, and information tents from the Connect In Elkhart County project and MACOG.

Bike to Work Week is May 16–22. According to the National Bike League, 40% of all trips in the U.S. are less than two miles, making bicycling a feasible and fun way to get around.

In conjunction with the Goshen Chamber of Commerce’s “Beautify Goshen” Week, the Goshen Street Department will be making additional disposal services available to assist city residents in their “Beautify Goshen” tasks.

This free service is offered only during the first full week in May (an eight-day week with two Saturdays), and there is no limit to the quantity of items that may be disposed. Residents must make arrangements to transport the items; there will not be curbside pickup.  Because this free service is paid by the tax dollars of Goshen city residents, only City residents are allowed to dispose of items.  IDs will be checked to verify residency.

The collection site will be the Goshen Street Department located at 475 Steury Ave.  Hours that items will be accepted are as follows:

• Saturday, April 30 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Sunday, May 1: CLOSED
• Monday––Friday, May 2 to May 6 from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, May 7 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In order to keep disallowed items from entering the waste stream, the Street Department will have a crew member on hand at all times monitoring the items being accepted. Items that can be disposed of are:

• Non-hazardous refuse, such as furniture, carpeting, lumber, dry wall, metal and vinyl siding, windows, fiberglass insulation, mattresses, stoves, landscape timbers, bricks, etc.
• White goods, such as refrigerators, air conditioners, freezers, dehumidifiers, etc.; the Freon does not have to be removed
• Electronic waste, such as computers, home phones, televisions, etc.
• Tires up to 16½”, either on or off their rims

The following items will not be accepted during this large-item disposal:

• Pesticides or herbicides (insect or weed killers)
• Unlabeled drums containing any substance
• Sealed pressurized containers (propane tanks, etc.)
• Paint thinners, oil base or water base paint
• Brush and yard waste
• Asbestos insulation
• Contaminated soil

During the other 51 weeks of the year, Goshen residents may place one or two large items per month with their regular weekly trash for removal. (This does not include electronics, old tube-type televisions or any cooling appliances containing Freon or any of the items not accepted in the Beautify Goshen disposal.) For details of the year-long, large-item disposal, contact Borden Waste-Away at (574) 293-5001.

The Goshen Street Department began its spring brush and leaf collection on April 25, ending May 6 after multiple rounds.

During this first collection the Street Department will pick up both leaves and brush. Because of the large amount of brush and leaves usually placed out for this first pick up, it tends to take longer for the crews to make their rounds. Some information to remember:

• Residents are to have their leaves and brush placed at the curb, but not in the street so as to not cause a road hazard or hinder water drainage.
• Do not place brush or trash on or in leaf piles. 
• Leaf and brush piles placed in alleyways will not be picked up.
• Do not place piles around fire hydrants, mail boxes or telephone poles. 

For the rest of the summer season, brush collection will begin on the last Monday of the month from May through September. These are the starting Dates:

• May 30, 2022
• June 27, 2022  
• July 25, 2022
• August 29, 2022
• September 26, 2022

For clarification or questions, please call the Goshen Street Department at 534-9711.

City Departments and partners will gather at the Goshen Courthouse Lawn Friday, April 29 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. for an evening of fun and learning.

At the City’s Arbor Day celebration on April 29th, at the County Courthouse in downtown Goshen, there will be tree seedlings to give away: 100 Sweet Gum, 100 Pecan, and 100 Silky Dogwood. The Goshen High School Youth Caucus will also be raffling off 18 older trees. This will be a fundraiser for Trees For Goshen, a local non-profit organization that helps Goshen residents plant trees on their properties. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the Arbor Day event, and ahead of Arbor Day by inquiring at environmental@goshencity.com.

There are 11 different species of trees in the raffle, and participants can choose which kind of tree they are purchasing a ticket for. Three of these species will be smaller than 4 feet tall this spring, and tickets will be sold for $10 per tree; the remaining species will be 4-6 feet tall, and tickets will be sold for $15 per tree.

The City of Goshen will reconfigure Lincoln Avenue for the next several months to test the City’s first-ever cycle track. This temporary track will provide a safe connection in the city’s bicycle network and facilitate better pedestrian movement.

The City will install a demonstration Cycle Track lane along the south side of Lincoln Avenue between 5^th and 8^th streets in early May, with the plan for the lane to remain over a period of several months as a trial to determine if a permanent cycle track can be installed in the future.

In addition to the added lane, which will function as a two-way route for cyclists, Lincoln Avenue will be reduced to two driving lanes, accommodating for parking lanes on both sides of the road and a center turn lane.

The plan for lane reductions is based on a study of traffic volumes in the area, which indicates the change will have minimal impact on traffic flow.

The work will include adjusting the existing pavement markings and installing temporary curb sections with delineators to define the cycle track. The cycle track will be placed along the south curb line and the on-street parking will be shifted to the north side of the track. The number of on-street parking spaces will not be decreased.

“This project has the potential to make the important connection between the Indiana Multi-Use Path, the Millrace Trail, the Maple City Greenway and the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail,” Civil Engineer Josh Corwin said. “The City’s hope is that this reconfiguration also will help make the neighborhood more bike and pedestrian-friendly.”

The City will evaluate the layout, traffic flow and parking, as well as collecting feedback from the public during the trial period. A public meeting will be held to receive community feedback. The date and location will be determined at a future date.

More information, including updates, diagrams and illustrations of the project can be found at goshenindiana.org/cycletrack. For any questions, residents can contact the Engineering Department at 534-2201 or via email at engineering@goshencity.com.

Our future leaders are talking. The Community Relations Commission thinks we should tune in.

The CRC organized an essay contest for all Goshen students in junior high through high school. Members of the Commission will celebrate and award the participants of this year’s essay contest Tuesday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 111 E. Jefferson St. 

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. 

Through their essays, students chose one of the eight CRC principles, reflected on it and discussed how it affects us as individuals and communities.

As a community, we have a stake in challenging our leaders to grow their insight and imagination. For the contestants, the stakes were more concrete— up to $150 in cash! 

A committee of five judges has determined 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winners for each category: Jr. High and Sr. High.

Ed Groff, CRC secretary, and who served as a judge for this contest, spoke of his experience reading the essays from this year’s participants. 

“As a member of the CRC it has been a pleasure to read the inspiring essays that were submitted for this year’s contest,” he said. “Students, drawing from personal experiences, shared their aspirations for a fair and robust Goshen. We hope to see this become an annual event, encouraging our youth to voice their visions for our evolving community.”