DANVILLE — Spring and warmer weather was on the minds of many Neighborhood Association Workshop attendees Saturday.

From the city officials dressed in Danville Dans baseball jerseys for the “Spring Training for Neighborhood Associations,” to the talks about annual cleanups and cookouts, tall grass and how to attack nuisance vegetation with weed killer, the groups are ready to get back outside and in their yards and gardens.

About 70 residents attended the seventh annual workshop Saturday morning at Harrison Park Clubhouse.

Topics of discussion ranged from: organizing and conducting meetings; creating group goals; successful neighborhood group events such as cookouts, garden walks, community gardens and children’s events; complaint procedures at city hall; when to call 911; and nuisance vegetation.

Bayview Estates Homeowners Association Treasurer Sanjeeva Reddy asked Steve Lane, special services superintendent for the city, about lawn companies and others blowing lawn clippings into the streets and gutters.

Lane said that shouldn’t be happening. It’s a violation someone can report to the city.

Persons also can call the city, pertaining to nuisance vegetation, when there is a dead or dying tree in the city right-of-way, Lane said.

If the potentially dangerous tree is on private property, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to deal with.

Lane said property owners also can “create a home security issue” with overgrown bushes and vegetation near windows or a front porch.

It benefits the property owner and neighborhood as a whole when properties are taken care of, he said.

The city is now dealing with overgrown brush in alleys again now that garbage trucks aren’t going down them, Lane added.

The Vermilion County Probation Department helps the city in the summer to address tall grass and weeds on foreclosed and other abandoned properties, he said.

The city also has a Park Partners Program where groups can adopt a neighborhood park and agree to visit it at least six times a year to help clean and maintain it. Activities would include: litter pick up, painting tables and benches, sweeping courts/walks, brush collection, graffiti removal, weeding flower beds and reporting hazards or damaged equipment.

The city provides trash bags and other materials.

For more information, call 431-2273 or visit the Public Works building, 1155 E. Voorhees St., for a Park Partners application.

Other issues

In other discussions, Public Safety Director Larry Thomason told residents to call 911 to report illegal or suspicious incidents. The 911 system is not overwhelmed here like in other big cities.

Thomason also advises residents to let police check out a situation that doesn’t look right.

“You’re not a busybody,” he said about calling 911 about a suspicious incident.

The resident’s name will not be shared.

Also, Danville Area Transportation Study Director Adam Aull talked about the importance of Census 2010 and city residents filling out the 10-question form when they receive one next month.

City officials worked for 70 hours recently to fill out forms for addresses, buildings and about 1,300 residents whom census officials missed in the address canvassing process.

“If we do not have an accurate population count, we can’t get the federal funding we deserve,” Aull said.

The census data also helps city officials plan for the future, he said.

“The information helps us help you. We can see where we came from and where we are going to,” he said.

Reddy said he attended Saturday’s workshop to learn more about city services to share with his homeowners association, and also which neighborhood groups are needing help and what they are experiencing.

His group holds an annual picnic and has regular meetings.

Vermilion Heights Neighborhood Association members, and husband and wife, Jeff McCoy and Dawn Shepard, attended the workshop last year, too.

They like the sharing of ideas and learning new things.

The city now boasts about 20 neighborhood associations.

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said the goal of the associations is to “make the city better one neighborhood at a time.”