Your Neighbor column: Mayor offers updates at last meeting; Neighborhood Code and City Utilities are guests Thursday
February 21, 2012admin No Comments »
Editor’s note: Rosie O’Grady is co-chair of the Northwest Area Partnership of neighborhoods. the your Neighbor column is written by a member of a local nonprofit group and appears frequently in Neighbors.
We’re into our second month of the New Year, and we think our website ( www.neighborhoodlink.com/NWAP) may be catching on as our latest means of communication with all our neighborhoods. by the way, we have grown with over 100 or more neighborhoods in the Northwest Area Partnership and new faces showing up at our monthly meetings.
If you’re a newly elected president or just plain interested, we invite you to attend our monthly meetings. the January meeting was well attended with the presence of Mayor Henry, and many took advantage of personally asking him questions and listening to the latest news regarding our city.
He commented on the economy and tax caps especially, noting the caps keep taxes down but also reduce the revenue stream, leaving less revenue to make improvements needed. he spoke about two developments: the Harrison, with its first floor as retail and second for apartments; and the Anthony Wayne Bank Building. Walgreens and RediMed have expressed interest in locating in the AWB building.
The AWB building was projected to be filled within one to three years, but sales have been brisk, with the entire 15th floor sold out.
He also discussed several one-way streets, such as Clinton, Lafayette and Fairfield, that began as a means to avoid gridlock for the many GE employees and may serve better today as two-way streets. since people attending the Embassy Theatre and Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory have difficulties dropping off patrons, he suggested pull off space wherever possible and also the widening of sidewalks in front of Parkview Field.
He also hinted recommendations for the old Omni Source location (at Fourth and South Clinton streets) and the Legacy Task Force are closer, and asked our opinions on combining the Three Rivers Festival with RiverFest.
In closing, he remarked about our tight economy but how fortunate we are compared to other cities our size who have had to limit many services due to the bad economy.
The Fort Wayne fire Department urged not to use cooking ovens to heat areas and to use safety precautions with space heaters. Neighborhood Code will be disclosing some new rules for code, both for residential and commercial properties.
Fort Wayne Police Department announced a slight increase in crime, even with several “good arrests” lately, and blamed the rise in thefts of mopeds and theft from unlocked cars. Brent Wake, city neighborhood advocate, spoke about Bank on Fort Wayne that was developed for those who previously were unbankable and the upcoming sign ordinance.
County Commissioner Nelson Peters remarked that Allen County, as well as Wells and Whitley counties, placed first in the state for new jobs with a 4.6 increase. I also learned at the Allen County Homeowners association recently that the Women’s Bureau will be hosting a talk by kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart on March 8 at the former Scottish Rite Center, now the University of Saint Francis Performing Arts Center.
On a similar note, you can have emailed to you a notice of a registered sex offender by going to www.insor.org. if you’re new to a neighborhood and would like to know who your neighbors are, go to www.neighborswhitepages.com. Another means of communications we hope to have soon is the ability to call 311 for information on how to contact us at the Northwest Area Partnership.
Hope to see you tomorrow night when both Cindy Joyner of Neighborhood Code and Mary Jane Slaton of City Utilities will be our speakers on the newest code regulations and the proposed water rate increase. come and listen, enjoy meeting your neighbors and coffee and cookies. Hope to see you there.
<a href="http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120215/NEWS01/302159999/1008/SPORTStag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120215/NEWS01/302159999/1008/SPORTSWed, 15 Feb 2012 05:23:45 GMT”>Your Neighbor column: Mayor offers updates at last meeting; Neighborhood Code and City Utilities are guests Thursday
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