City of Charlotte offices will be closed Friday, March 21, 2008.

Earlier this month CATS was awarded a Silver ADDY for the ad created to promote riding the LYNX Blue Line to Bobcats games. This is the seventh year in a row that the CATS Marketing Division has received an award for its advertising efforts. These marketing efforts helped increase ridership by over 60 percent during the past seven years.

CATS experienced its highest single month ridership in over 58 years in February when customers took more than 2 million trips on its services; an average of 79,000 daily rides.

Ridership for the month of February increased 34.4 percent across all services compared to February 2007. During the month, ridership on regular bus services increased 8.8 percent with significant increases on express and regional express routes. Increased ridership was also seen on community circulators and vanpools.

In only its third month of service, the LYNX Blue Line transported more than 387,000 riders with weekday ridership averaging over 14,000; a 35 percent increase over the projected average first-year daily ridership of 9,100.

Contributing to the LYNX's high February ridership were the large numbers of commuters responding to the soaring gasoline prices, as well as visitors who rode during the CIAA Tournament. In total, more than 80,000 trips by commuters and CIAA attendees were taken on the LYNX during the tournament, held February 25 to March 1.

For more information on CATS and its services call 704-336-RIDE or visit www.ridetransit.org.

Charlotte is known for its natural beauty and famed tree canopy, and the Charlotte Tree Advisory Commission (CTAC) wants to ensure this reputation is upheld in the future. The CTAC will plant a commemorative tree and replace three others at their annual Arbor Day celebration at Freedom Park on Saturday, March 29 at 10 a.m.

You're invited to attend and even pick up a free seedling. More than five hundred tree seedlings, along with instructions on planting and care, will be distributed free on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Are you itching to get outside and spruce up your lawn? These tips will help you conserve water while keeping your landscape looking nice:

• Prune your shrubs. Smaller plants require less water.
• Pull weeds. Weeds are water hogs and draw moisture away from your plantings.
• Select drought-tolerant plants to fill in bare spots.
• Position plants with similar water needs together. That way, you can hand-water shrubs and flowers that need it without drowning the whole bed for plants that don't.
• Mulch, mulch, mulch. This retains soil moisture and prevents weeds.

Mandatory water restrictions are still in effect for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities customers. Lawn irrigation, residential car washing and pool filling are restricted; however, you can still hand-water or drip irrigate shrubs, trees and flower beds. For more details, visit www.cmutilities.com or www.saveyourwater.org.

Save the Date: April 19, 2008

Ray's Splash Planet—10a.m. to 3 p.m.

A free, fun, family festival organized by City and County departments, local businesses, and citizen advocates to raise awareness of the many ways in which residents can make a difference in preserving the environment.

Highlights:

• Art Display
• Children's activities (full schedule available online)
• Display of alternative fuel cars
• Exhibitors
• Musical entertainment
• Rain barrel sales (advance orders by phone, call CharMeck311)

Bring old shoes to donate to Soles4Souls (www.giveshoes.org). The charity can use gently worn shoes to make a tangible difference in someone's life. 

Visit http://earthday.charmeck.org for more information.

Charlotte's Earth Day festival is supported, in part, with a Project Grant from the Arts & Science Council.

Searching for ways to strengthen your neighborhood? Register for Community University, a training program with classes and course topics designed to increase your knowledge and skills of neighborhood organizations. Residents are encouraged to enroll in classes scheduled for Winter/Spring 2008.

For more information, including class descriptions, locations and registration forms, call 704-336-2061 or visit the Neighborhood Development or Community University web sites.

Tune in this week to hear about CMPD's No Easy Walk (NEW) gang prevention program and get all the information you need to know about the possible utility rate increase.