On Thursday we had bare ground, it snowed all night and most of the following day…here’s what I woke up to the next morning. The weatherman said it was 24 inches, but a few of my neighbors measured the snow in their driveways and came up with closer to 3 feet. No wind, no drifts…just 3 feet of powder on the level. The ski areas are happy and will all be open for Christmas.

Well, better go and shovel the driveway again….

This is my last email about ElderHelp for this year.

Just wanted to give you all a final update….and a huge THANK YOU….

Keller Williams agents raised between 5,000 – 6,000 pounds of food (conservative estimate) for ElderHelp during our big Food Drive. We also, in conjunction with the Wells Fargo boys, raised over $500 in cash donations. This allowed ElderHelp to buy 150 Cornish Game Hens, which were passed out with each Food Bin. The extra money went into ElderHelp’s general fund that is used to help those elderly in our community that have urgent needs.

John Corcoran, the director of ElderHelp, called me the day after we delivered all the food to their warehouse and thanked me profusely. He said that without , they would definitely have been short on food. Instead, they far exceeded their goal of 9,600 pounds of food and they still have extra food on hand to give away…should you know of an elderly person that could use a Food Bin during this cold winter season.

And finally, I want to thank each and every one of you for embracing this special opportunity. I was absolutely blown away by how the majority of you jumped on board and agreed to make the decision of BEING A BLESSING ON PURPOSE.

Through your participation, I received the blessing of seeing the open and giving hearts of all the agents here at Keller Williams. It not only greatly touched my heart, but reaffirmed to both Tracy and I that we absolutely made the right decision in coming over to Keller Williams Realty. We are honored and blessed to have the opportunity to work with you all.

Wishing each and every one of you much success in the coming year. Don’t forget to send out your “Thank You” cards to the people in your neighborhoods who donated food. And let them know the results of the food drive and how much you appreciate them.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

John

But every once in a while comes along a Great Deal that doesn’t need anything other than someone to move in and enjoy it. Brand-new, never lived in and $50,000 under the appraised value.

This home has been taken off of the market

Our 30 volunteers were few, compared to the 3500 that it takes to keep the race staffed.  We had to register the kids that would run the last few yards with the competitor, keep them secure until their runner came running in, identify the runners by number as they ran towards us, get that number to the holding area…and do it all with a minimal disruption to the race.

We were told that we did a great job… we felt as if we struggled, but we learned a great deal this year and plan on manning the same area for CDA Ironman 2009 (but doing it better).

The Ironman is a great event for Coeur d’ Alene, this year was race number 6. The race will be back for at least 4 more years. This was my first year for volunteering, but I plan on being there every year from now on.

A great event for a great town!

Street Tree planting project announced – Free Street trees for 7 subdivisions

• Sunshine Meadows
• The Landings at Waterford
• Ramsey Meadows
• Bentwood
• Echo Glen
• Copper Ridge
• Jae’s Place

You can call the Urban Forestry division of the Coeur d’ Alene Parks Department
at 769-2266 or 415-0415 or email karenh@cdaid.org if you are interested. There is also a response form on the city website at www.cdaid.org

You only need to be willing to keep the trees watered and protect them from string trimmers and mowers.

The available species are:

• Honey Locust
• White Ash
• Hackberry

The trees will be planted by contract tree planting crews in late May or early June.

UPDATE

I saw the article about Free trees in the newspaper on Monday, Memorial Day. My neighbors that called the city to request a tree on Tuesday said that the City employee was out that afternoon to mark the planting location in the swale and said that someone would be by in the next day or two to locate the utilities and that the trees would be planted by the following Tuesday.

Sure enough, at 8 AM on the following Tuesday the trees were being planted!

The City said that they ran out of trees by Wednesday.

I think that it has finally quit snowing ! Time to get the kayaks ready for the water.

CDA and the surrounding area have some wonderful places to get out on the water.

Here’s a link the the Kootenai County Boat Ramps map

http://www.co.kootenai.id.us/departments/parkswaterways/facilities/FacilitiesMap.asp

Dan

Janet and I are Realtor’s at Keller Williams in Coeur d’ Alene, ID.

Our goal for the blog is to share our knowledge of the area and what’s going on the the community with our readers.

Check out the links on the left side and let me know if there are other links that you would like to see added.

Feel free to ask questions, make comments and explore Coeur d’ Alene and the surrounding area.

Dan