Tuesday, April 8, 2008

AN OLD FASHIONED NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING

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.