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HWNA NEWS
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February 2001
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Code Corner
Do you have neighborhood news to contribute? Contact editor, Shelley Labrado by phone: 342-4071 or email: letsdanceamerica@yahoo.com
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Candidate's ForumThursday, February 22,
2001
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Code CornerKirk Duncan, President-elect Welcome to the first, and hopefully, monthly edition of Code Corner; the column that helps to answer the question "How do I help make my neighborhood a more livable place to enjoy?" City codes and code enforcement are necessary parts of our urban life. Whereas we each would like to dictate the set of standards under which we live, for the common good we have elected to abide by a minimum standard as set forth by the city codes. This column will try to address and educate Westheight residents about the codes and enforcement issues that most effect our neighborhood. Eddis Sayles and I are your neighborhood codes coordinators (our phone numbers are listed in the newsletter masthead). We are most anxious to hear from you about issues concerning city codes, code violation reports, and code enforcement. These are all related but separate issues that can be addressed depending on the level of interest within the neighborhood. The most basic level is to know the codes and abide by them. So, the main purpose of this column is code education. What codes most affect us? How can we get help to adhere and help our neighbor adhere to the codes? How do we report code violations and follow up on a code report? This level is the easiest for any of us to work and will take little of our precious time to try and effect change. Please remember that it is not up to the citizen to enforce code rules. That is the city's function. The next level would be to follow up on code enforcement. I am sure there are times we have all been frustrated with the pace of government. We may have to accept a pace slowed by the legal demands of enforcing the codes, but we cannot let SLOW movement evolve into NO movement. I will attempt to track your code violation reports and assist the neighborhood in keeping the city on top of code enforcement. For this I need your help. Please log each call, letter or meeting you have with the city codes department and report that to Eddis or myself. Through these efforts we can make sure our concerns are kept on the forefront of city codes business. Effecting change to the city codes would be the highest level, most difficult, and time consuming of our code issues. But if enough of our neighbors feel it necessary then we can act to try and change a code. If this is your interest, please make it a point to attend one of our monthly neighborhood meetings to discuss this in person. Give us a call to make sure that either Eddis or I will be in attendance. P.S. My personal pet peeve is junk cars in the neighborhood. If it is yours also, let's talk. See you next month. KJD | |
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President's MessageWe're going to build on our successes in 2001Donald Caswell, President The year 2000 was an especially successful one for the Historic Westheight Neighborhood association. Just take a look at our accomplishments: * Our membership grew to 161, the most paying members we've ever had * We took an enormous step toward solving our traffic flow problems by inviting the unified government in to hear our concerns and make a proposal * We initiated new programs to include the children in our neighborhood at Halloween and Christmas * We added 6 new trees and a garden bed at Westheight Park and beautified other common areas * We got the city to remove a health hazard on Walker * We reduced incidents of crime through our neighborhood watch and phone tree * We held a forum for local political candidates * We got a domain name for our web site: www.historicwestheight.org * We helped the Dove Art Center make their programs successful * We had the most financially successful homes tour to date And I haven't even mentioned the garage sale, the cook-off, the fall picnic, the Thoughtfulness Committee, the monthly newsletter, the neighborhood directory, the featured speakers at our monthly meetings, or dozens of other activities that we have been doing for several years. Y2K was a banner year for HWNA, and prospects for 2001 look even better. At our planning meeting in January, the executive board targeted four areas of emphasis for 2001: traffic control, children's activities, Westheight Park, and code enforcement. We will continue all of our ongoing programs, and we will expand our efforts in these four areas. Traffic control was one of the most important topics identified at our earliest HWNA meetings, and it continues to be a concern. We have been working on traffic control for several years. Our first efforts brought us the stop signs at 20th and 24th streets on Washington Blvd. Those signs slow down some drivers, but they haven't been completely successful. Wayne Walden was able to get representatives of the Unified Government to come to us last year and listen to our concerns. At our regularly scheduled meeting, Feb. 6, they will present a plan they believe will be more effective than the stops signs. We will learn about the plan and how it will be paid for, and we will be able to ask questions and voice our opinions. If implemented, these changes will affect all Westheight residents, so I encourage you to attend the meeting, whether you're a HWNA member or not. Children's activities are becoming more important to HWNA members as more families with school-age children move into the neighborhood. In 2001, we hope to have more activities for children and to get more of our children to attend. By including children not only in our social events, but, where possible, in our community support events, we can expose them both to the fun of living in Westheight and to the satisfaction of doing something to improve their community. In addition to the Halloween and Christmas events, we hope to add an Easter egg hunt, an Earth Day clean-up and picnic at Westheight Park, and a 4th of July party. Rich Lilley (371-7065) is the contact person on the Executive Board for children's events. Westheight Park is looking better than it has in decades. We've done work on the Successes in 2001, continued. bridges, planted trees, and gotten the city to put in playground equipment. It is satisfying to see that more people are using the Park for its intended purposes. Still, some of our work on the Park is incomplete, and keeping illegal activity out of the Park requires ongoing attention. Sarah Pike (621-3628) will head up efforts to improve the Park and promote its lawful use. Code enforcement is a perennial concern for HWNA members. Our homes are old, and we realize that sometimes they can be difficult to keep up. Abandoned homes invite criminal activity, and neglected homes drive down prices and make the neighborhood less appealing to live in. (See related article, "Code Corner".) These four areas are not the only ones in which we hope to expand our activities this year. We also intend to make more and better use of the Phone Tree to keep our neighbors aware not only of crime in the neighborhood, but also of community activities we hope they will participate in. We intend to keep Mary Smith and Giny Rector, our Thoughtfulness Committee, very busy this year - greeting new arrivals in the neighborhood, providing special communications to neighbors in times of need, and finding ways to honor the dozens of volunteers who do all of the work of our association. Joan Nickum has offered to write profiles on neighbors for our newsletters. We intend to expand the web site to include information on the special requirements of living in an historic neighborhood, real estate information, and a community calendar. We hope to have more activities at meetings to help us get to know our neighbors. This should help us better enjoy new activities as well as the cook-off in March, the garage sale in June, the fall picnic, the Homes Tour, the Christmas party, our neighborhood watch, fixing up the common areas, and many other activities. For all of these, we need volunteers, but most of all, we need participants. This will be an active year for HWNA. I hope you'll find a way to take part in some of these activities, to have fun with your neighbors, and improve our neighborhood.
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