News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Friday December 19th 2025
East Phillips Needs Harm Reduction Solutions for the Drug Problem
By Stephen Gregg
In the eight years I’ve owned my home near 26th St and Bloomington Ave, I have been stuck by a discarded syringe, seen multiple overdoses, two deaths, and countless ambulances and police vehicles. I have watched in horror as entwined problems increase: the number of people experiencing homelessness, open air drug use, and crime. When approaching neighborhood issues, I try to practice empathy. From the beginning I’ve wanted to be involved in the work to find solutions, attending countless neighborhood meetings of all sorts. The problems here are deep-rooted and complex. I’m not a social worker–actually I’m an agricultural plant scientist. So I also comb research for solutions to problems. And this search has pointed me strongly towards harm reduction practices and services, practices endorsed by the CDC. Harm reduction has the potential to reduce short term harms while creating space for long lasting change. The city is already funding harm reduction services, such as the work of Southside Harm Reduction, who do street outreach and provide needle exchange.
According to the National Harm Reduction Coalition website, harm reduction principles are a set of practical strategies to reduce the consequences of drug use, based on a belief in rights for people who use drugs.… Read the rest “East Phillips Needs Harm Reduction Solutions for the Drug Problem”
Tax Time!
By MARY ELLEN KALUZA
Tax season creates a lot of anxiety, even if you expect a refund. Filing seems to get harder every year. You’d think Congress would like to make it as easy as possible for us, but the poor IRS has been woefully underfunded for years, leaving the agency with seriously outdated technology and far fewer employees to process the hundreds of millions of tax returns they receive each year. Add a pandemic into the mess and… Hopefully this information can ease some of your anxiety.
A Few Tips To Help Manage Tax Filing
- Whether you are doing your own taxes or having someone else prepare them, gathering all your information in advance will speed up the process. Find a list of most common info needed at https://prepareandprosper.org/free-tax-preparation/what-to-bring/.
- File electronically for faster processing.
- Choose to receive your refund by direct deposit to get it a month or more sooner.
- File early to beat the rush, and more importantly, to help prevent tax identity theft.
- This year’s filing deadline: April 18, 2022.
Special For This Year
- Advance child tax credit payments: Families eligible for child tax credits need to be aware that advance payments already received in 2021 are subtracted from the total child tax credit you can claim on the 2021 tax return.
A Grandson remembers his Grandfather
Tales of Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery
by Sue Hunter Weir
William Gaspar had a dog named Brownie, who loved to eat chocolate-covered peanuts. When William went to visit his son Joseph, in Loretto, Minnesota, he would walk Brownie to his son’s grocery store and buy him a treat. These are small things, and certainly not the most important things that William did in his life, but they give us a sense of who he was, that other types of information – lists of dates and places – cannot.
Emilie Gaspar, William’s wife, was the second person buried in the cemetery after the City Council reconsidered an earlier decision not to allow burials after 1919. Emilie met the criteria for an exception—she owned a plot, and other members of her family were already buried there.
Emilie’s mother, Mary Ann Klapperich Kelly Gaspar, was buried there, as were Mary Ann’s first two husbands. She married Frank Kelly on January 26, 1861, but he died from typhoid before they had been married a year. The date of his death was not recorded on his burial card, but he died before their daughter Elizabeth was born on December 23, 1861.… Read the rest “A Grandson remembers his Grandfather”
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