541-917-0490

541-791-0158

14th ATI Northwest Art & Air Festival August 23-25

Wrap up summer in Albany August 23-25, 2013, at the community's signature event, the ATI Northwest Art & Air Festival at Timber-Linn Memorial Park and Albany Municipal Airport.  This is the free Festival's 14th year, continuing its most popular events and changing up a few:

• More than 75 Northwest artists display and sell their wares.  Art includes pottery, jewelry, metalwork, wood craft, paintings, fused glass, toys, and photography.
• Local artists will demonstrate their skills in their chosen media.
• Hot-air balloons launch at dawn each morning sponsored by AmeriGas of Albany/Salem.  Rides are available for a fee.  Contact the Albany Visitors Association at 541-928-0911.
• The panda balloon returns this year, sponsored by ATI.
• The hot-air balloon Night Glow happens Friday night with music by The Coats on the Festival Stage.
• Tethered rides are available Saturday morning, weather permitting.
• Live music performances, featuring professional and amateur talent from the mid-Willamette Valley, are scheduled on the Festival Stage Friday and Saturday, sponsored by Oregon Freeze Dry.
• From crafts, live demonstrations, active play, and the Reptile Man mobile unit, everyone in the family will find something to do in the locally owned Red Robin Family Zone.
• Foreigner plays on the Oregon Amphitheater stage on Saturday.  Fireworks over Timber Linn Lake follow the concert.  Admission is free, and all who attend will be issued a nontransferable wristband.
• The Festival's Art of Cars show will feature Studebakers, Corvairs, Corvettes, orphan cars, and an open class on Saturday near the Festival Stage, presented by Lassen Toyota, Northwest Toyota Dealers, Toyota Moving Forward, and Let's Go Places.
• Free Young Eagles airplane flights for kids ages 8-17 are part of activities at Albany Municipal Airport and are sponsored by Remax Integrity-Doug Hall and Team Pendley. More than 200 kids took these flights in 2012.
• The Oregon Pilots Association annual conference coincides with the Festival with sessions for pilots and the public at the Linn Fair & Expo Center
• Northwest wines and microbrews and international foods are available all three days. Gilgamesh Brewing will host a beer garden in the main Festival venue and, on Saturday during the Foreigner concert, in the Amphitheater.
• Dry camping is available for RVs and tents.  Call 541-928-0911 to reserve your spot
• Parking is $5 on Friday and Saturday and free on Sunday.
• More than 50,000 attended the 2012 Northwest Art & Air Festival.

The ATI Northwest Art & Air Festival is presented by Albany Parks & Recreation and the Albany Visitors Association.  ATI is the title sponsor for the 14th year.

Wristbands provide entry to Foreigner concert

Everyone who attends the August 24 Foreigner concert at the Northwest Art & Air Festival will receive a nontransferable wristband when entering the Oregon Amphitheater for the event.  The wristbands are being issued in an effort to control to manage size of the crowd for crowd safety and to ensure emergency access.

Albany Parks & Recreation will release a limited number of free wristband vouchers for the Foreigner concert - one per person - at the Albany Fred Meyer store beginning August 7, 2013.  Advance vouchers can be exchanged for a wristband at the Information Booth in Timber-Linn Memorial Park between 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. August 24.  Each person with a voucher must present it to receive a nontransferable wristband.  Vouchers cannot be exchanged after 12:30 p.m.; voucher holders who arrive after 12:30 p.m. must join the general admission line.

Individuals who don't get advance vouchers can still obtain a wristband to attend the concert for free.  Amphitheater gates open at 2 p.m. for general admission.  Wristbands will be placed on all persons entering the venue and will be required to enter or exit the Amphitheater.  Once the Amphitheater has reached capacity, individuals can listen to the concert from other areas in the park.

With or without advance vouchers, the concert is free.  Donations are encouraged to offset the cost of the event.

Alcohol cannot be brought into the venue. All coolers and bags may be inspected.  Alcohol will be available for sale inside the venue and monitored in compliance with Oregon Liquor Control Commission regulations.  Food will be available for purchase on site.

Call 541-917-7777 for more information.

National Night Out against Crime August 6

On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, over 30 neighborhoods throughout Albany will join thousands of communities nationwide for the 30th annual National Night Out (NNO) crime and drug prevention event.  National Night Out, which is sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch and cosponsored locally by the Albany Police Department and Target, will involve over 35 million people from all 50 states in America's Night Out against Crime.  

National Night Out is designed to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness; generate support for and participation in local anticrime efforts; strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and send a message to criminals letting them know neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Visit with your neighbors on August 6 to promote awareness, safety, and neighborhood unity.  National Night Out showcases the vital importance of police-community partnerships and citizen involvement in the effort to build a safer nation.

Student art on City Budget cover

Students at Calapooia, North Albany, and Memorial Middle Schools competed this spring in "This is MY Albany," a contest to have their art featured on the cover of the City of Albany's 2013-14 adopted budget document.

Students created 64 pieces of art for the contest.  First-place winners from each school will be on the budget cover, with the other pieces featured throughout the document, replacing the City logo which was used to mark otherwise blank pages in previous budgets.

The art was judged by Mayor Sharon Konopa, Budget Committee Chair Susan Folden, and City Manager Wes Hare.  City employees also viewed the art and chose favorites in three categories (photographs, drawings, and tin foil) for an Employees' Choice award.  All winners were recognized at the May 15, 2013, Budget Committee meeting.

Copies of the budget document are available for review at Albany City Hall, 333 Broadalbin Street SW; Albany Public Library, 2450 14th Avenue SE; and the downtown Carnegie Library, 302 Ferry Street SW.

The winners are:

Calapooia Middle School, taught by Cindy Etherton

1st - Kryslynn Schill
2nd - Jordyn Applegate
3rd - Abby Slanga

Employees' Choice - Lliyah Salsman

North Albany Middle School, taught by Laurie Cox

1st - Rylie Ball
2nd - Wyatt Walls
3rd - Riley Lamont

Employees' Choice - Wyatt Walls

Memorial Middle School, taught by Erin Wallace

1st - Megan Tarpenning
2nd - Abbie Egan
3rd - Jake Dempsey and Amy Lopez

Employees' Choice- Kate Kratka

Down by the Riverside Cleanup September 28

The City of Albany is coordinating "Down by the Riverside," the semiannual cleanup of Albany-area rivers and creeks, on Saturday, September 28, 2013.  It is a perfect opportunity for families and community members to take action and help clean up the community.

Anyone interested in volunteering should meet at Bowman Park, 300 Geary Street NE, at 9:00 a.m.  After collecting trash or removing invasive ivy at various sites around Albany, volunteers will return to the park at noon for a pizza lunch to celebrate their hard work.

Participants should dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes.  Those who want to wade in small creeks to pick up trash and debris should bring rubber boots or waders.  All other supplies and instructions will be provided by the City.

Groups with more than five people must preregister by Wednesday, September 25.  Individuals and small families do not need to call in advance.  Children younger than high school must be accompanied by a participating adult.  All participants must sign a waiver, and those under 18 must have a parent or guardian's signature.

Albany's event is part of a statewide cleanup day sponsored by SOLVE, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving Oregon's natural resources.  SOLVE facilitates volunteering and education opportunities though various beach, river, and other environmental maintenance projects by bringing together individuals, business groups, and service and conservation groups.

For more information or to preregister, contact Heather Slocum at 541-791-0058, or e-mail heather.slocum@cityofalbany.net

Indian children receive City event shirts

Deep discounted prices on T-shirts from past Albany Parks & Recreation events sparked donations to help out children in southern India this summer.

Parks & Recreation staff wanted to clear closets and shelves of merchandise from past events and offered them to the public at garage sale prices -$2 for River Rhythms and Northwest Art & Air Festival T-shirts, for example.  Bob Woods, Management Systems Director for the City, challenged coworkers to buy shirts to donate to Apple of His Eye Charity, founded by City employee Gina Burrese's sister to help widows and orphans in developing nations.  Burrese spent several weeks in Rwanda in 2012 with the charity.

This summer, another team from the charity took more that 50 City event shirts to two orphanages in Andhra Pradesh, India.  Burrese reports that the shirts were given to youth who, for the most part, have no possessions of their own; now they have a little bit of Albany.  The smile speaks for itself.