passed away last year george was one of the first to use cable television to communicate with their citizens and to the wider north east metro area he did the show maplewood emotion and the farm was featured on that show a number of times let's take a look hello you're watching maplewood emotion i'm george ross back this program is designed to be a supplement to the city newsletter maplewood in motion which you receive each month this month will start an update on the rooftop farm buildings as you know the old farmhouse barn and some other structures were moved to a new location the big room for commercial development on white bread and joining me on the program today are current peterson and well ladies i certainly known you both for a long time and been very interested and involved myself in the farm but shar one of the told people a little bit about the history to date about the farm and all we've been through so far ok well i think many restraints and maple would have driven by the farm in its original location and wondered about what was going to happen to that in hoping that it might become a part of the city at some time i know i did and so in the fall of one thousand nine hundred eight we discovered that it was going to be sold to developers or historical society maplewood area historical society so we brought it to meetings and we wondered what could we do about it so we went before the city and they did send out a call for interested people that would like to save the farm and we had a very good reception but it wasn't quite good enough at that time to for them to consider putting it on a referendum to get the one point eight million plus you know that we needed to  and the original site and the original sate so then that was denied because partly because the city was involved in other funding at the time i think part of it new gladstone fire station and things like path were coming up so then our group we had a bigger group by that time and carolyn and some of the other other people got involved outside of the historical society quite a few people and so we did form a committee of the historical society to just be involved in saving the farm and carolyn peterson here and i are co chairs of that group well carolyn and fuzz per member met at a introduce a bill requesting three hundred thousand dollars and this was to move the farm and at that point i don't think we were quite sure where it was going to be moved but it was they were thinking somewhere in that area of county road well as it turned out the city did allow was two and a half acres of land in the open part of it was a lot of lobbying for the legislature and we had quite a few ups and downs you know on whether we were going to get any money or one time it was fifty thousand maybe and then that it turned out that that they were had the bill of one hundred thousand dollars well this wasn't enough really to do the farm but it was something to start with so  e were a citizen lobby and we were quite a little thorn in the side i think of some of the legislators down there we were there all the time including george  then along with contributions large contributions from liberal interrupts and sixteen thousand dollars that was pledged by citizens let's just say it is recreating the farm stead closely as we can to the original sate and i might also mention that this open space that it's been moved to originally was a dairy farm so it's appropriate that the buildings be there and this home will be a home to the maplewood area historical society where we will hold our meetings o mabel woods farm is recognized as one of the best preserved family farms in the nation national night out is an annual event that promotes our police and fire departments community relationships and neighborhood involvement trust between neighbors and law enforcement is vital to building a sense of community national night out is a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together in a positive and fun event neighborhoods across maplewood host parties and community events with visits from maplewood police and fire staff this year's national night out is on the evening of tuesday august fourth let's take a look at some footage from a few years ago we invite the neighborhood to come for a nice dinner we get some root beer from the community and i don't know what the numbers are probably a three hundred folks tonight throwing footballs with new friends tonight works to doomed i firmly believe and crime prevention and neighborhood watch and people helping in being responsible and keeping the neighborhoods crime free and managers and can do it on their own it is a group activity and it does take everyone's help to keep the street primary election hi i'm karen hegde director of citizen services for the city of maplewood city elections in the city of maplewood are held in the odd number years so this year we do have a primary election city council elections are nonpartizan and i will take this opportunity to remind you that our primary election will be held on august eleventh we have five individuals on the ballot that are running for two council member seats they are paul babeu in bob cardinal di and no longer e brian smith and two young the polls open at seven o'clock am and are open until eight o'clock pm to find your polling place or for more additional information regarding this selection you can visit the city website and the addresses on the screen when you get to the city website key in election in the search bar or you can call me at six five one two four nine two thousand or send your questions to me email at my email address that is on the screen remember the state statute has changed and you are no longer have to have a reason to vote by absentee if you would like to vote by absentee ballot you can do so by visiting the city clerk's office at the maplewood city hall or by us mail please visit the city website for additional information so that you can have that for voting absentee ballot the four finalists from the primary election will be on the general election ballot that will be conducted at the general election on november third voting is our right and responsibility remember if you have any questions at all please feel free to contact me at the information provided or by visiting the city website thank you see you at the polls maplewood has a thriving business which includes everything from corporate headquarters of an international corporation to big box stores to locally owned mom and pop shops let's visit a new thrift store tha with better use staff store which is a branch under our nonprofit ministry which is called piercing hearts ministry there's a few different reasons why we started this store number one is to help continue to provide finances for the ministry that we're doing out on the streets we go all weekly on the streets and do ministry working with gangs poor homeless pretty much anybody that a listen to us so you know some of the profits that we make from this store and from the donations that come in go to stuff like that another reason why we started the stores because of my past during my journey of jail and crime and drugs and drinking i ended up getting two felonies and you can imagine once i got clean i know that i had changed my life but standing in front of an employer they're looking at my history seeing felony theft and felony fleeing in a motor vehicle and there's a red flag that when operate a way and so time and time again they would go rape like when you fill out the application you have to put you have a felony and they want even ask me any other questions they went straight to the felony and they'd say you know well because of that we can't hire you and so i was looking for people in my life to give me an a chance that would believe in me so that would help me become a productive member in society again and through my journey from two thousand and four tall now there was many people that gave me that on ramp to become a productive member in society again and so better use restore wants to be that same on ramp for people that can prove that they've started to change their life and we're we want to give them an opportunity to come and serve and we already have people that are coming that have community service hours that they need to get done and they're working in the back they're helping fill up you know the shelves and all that kind of stuff and so we've already started with the volunteers but we also want to start hiring people down the road when we're more profitable to give them hope because when people gave me hope it would help and help me and really launch into what i'm doing a lot quicker than i i would have had to fight and fight and fight and so that's one thing that we're doing so better use thrift store is located that nineteen ninety county road and maplewood minnesota zip is five five one zero nine we are ra behind caribou coffee and we are in the same building as mine a key shop and saw our hours are monday tuesday wednesday and friday from ten am to seven pm thursday we're open from ten to five pm and saturday we're open from ten to six pm there's a few different ways that you can get involved you can donate items to the store go to our website w dot better used thrift dot com go to the donate click on the donate button scan of the bottom and it will show you the items that we do and don't accept you can also come and serve whether it's your family bible study whatever if you guys want to come and volunteer we always need help stocking the shelves sorting through items and all that stuff and then thirdly you can always donating get involved financially by a one time gift  financial gift you can support monthly quarterly however you want to gain you can go to our website w w w better use thrift dot com click on the donate button you can do it online or you can send a check so if you guys wherever you're at in life if you are in financial trouble and you might need specific items for your house or for your children we want you to come on down to our star we want to be a blessing to our community here in  around in the twin cities that's why we're here