Thank you, Jones Memorial AME Zion Church.
Rev. Evans and The Jones AME Church did a real community service on Saturday, April 5th. They provided a nice meeting place for citizens to voice their opinions to Mayor England. They even cooked a delicious lunch. Nicole Yates was there to represent the NAACP and Rep. Baron Hill, she was also available to answer questions.
Mayor England responded to a wide range of subjects. Following is a list of the citizens' concerns:
1. Streets which are torn up by the utility companies and left with a rough surface for cars to travel.
2. Police patrol cars sitting around in parking lots -- should be driving through neighborhood streets to monitor drug dealers in New Albany.
3. Repeated flooding in neighborhoods without the city trying to correct this problem.
4. Trash scattered along Highway 64 in plain view of traffic on West St.
5. Repairs to Spring St. Hill.
6. Additional code enforcement needed in New Albany:
~ unsafe shabby houses
~ junk cars in yards and on the street
~ trash in yards
7. Housing Authority problems in Bono Rd. housing.
8. Sewers and sewer billing.
9. Lawsuits over no bid contracts.
10. Garbage pickup and trash pickup problems.
11. YMCA - How are children from lower income families going to afford the money for membership in the YMCA? Everyone is so excited about the YMCA building downtown. Who is working on a plan to help these children use the new "Y". We are putting city and county dollars into this project. Someone should be looking for a way to help our inner-city children.
On a personal note, I thoroughly enjoyed this meeting and hope this is only one of many. Several people expressed a desire to meet monthly or quarterly. I hope we can form a Neighborhood Association with this group, Rev. Evans said the same thing. Mayor England promised to return regularly. Maybe we can meet monthly as a group and meet with the mayor quarterly.
5 comments:
Thanks for the rundown and review of the meeting!
I don't know if the Mayor addressed the answer to the Y membership question or not, but I'd like to give you some information. Funny, this same information I've given at 2 council meetings now and offered to give copies of this information to council members yet they all refuse. The YMCA does offer financial assistance. All YMCA's do. While they're different at each location because each YMCA is independently run, it does exist and is not hard to get.
Sorry for the novel, it just frustrates me that some people REFUSE to acknowledge this information .
Thanks again for the rundown!
Thanks Courtney,
A member of the Clark Co. Y gave me this info also. She said single mothers bring their kids there all of the time. There was just a lot of discussion at the meeting by people who were concerned that the Y would turn into a "country club" for wealthier people from the Knobs & Silver Hills.
I'm glad you said it is easy to get financial assistance. I'm sure lower income people don't want to have to jump through hoops so their kids can get a membership.
It was brought up that Camille Wright would be closed for the summer and no opening date has been set. It needs about 3M in repairs. Mayor E promised it would not be closed forever, they just don't know if it will stay at that location.
I'm sorry the Council members would not take your info. about financial asistance, have you talked to any of the new members?
I have not, frankly because it's not my job to get them this information. Especially Mr. Coffey.
I think it's ridiculous to think that the YMCA is going to turn into a country club, New Albany already has a country club and noone gives a crap. People just want a nice clean place to go.
Shirley:
In looking at the list of concerns people brought up at the meeting, (I wasn't there) something strikes me that was mentioned in the Mayor's address a couple weeks ago.
No one is expressing a wish for wild extravagances. Mayor England said something to the effect that people's expectations from city government are not beyond what should be routinely realized. Those expectations are what a normal, functioning city should do as a minimum. The challenge for local government is to do what is expected, but also set the stage for amenities that place us somewhere above the minimum and make New Albany a place people are proud to call home, not just a so-so place to eat and sleep. I think England referred to these amenities as "the cherry on the cake".
If more people would step up, as you and others have done and are doing, we'll have a chance to see New Albany somewhere above the minimum.
Thank you John.
Everyone there wanted to get involved and make NA a better place to live. Hopefully we will be able to make something happen.
Post a Comment