West Side Dilemma: How To Spend $20K

A welcome sign for West Hills? A fund for homeowners to purchase security cameras?

How about renovating a playground currently strewn with bottles and needles? Or adding strings of those cute bulbs to illuminate trees along Whalley Avenue?

Westvillians and West Rockers are having a hard time choosing on which of those to spend $20,000.

The money is this year’s double-size Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP) grant, administered through the city’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) and given to each of the city’s 12 community management teams.

On Wednesday night 30 neighbors gathered for the regular Westville/West Hills/Beverly Hills community management team (CMT) meeting in the cafeteria of the Mauro-Sheridan School on Fountain Street.

The agenda included a discussion of which project should be the beneficiary of the $20,000 LCI is distributing as the 2019 annual grant. The amount is usually $10,000, but last year’s was not distributed for fiscal reasons, so this year the larger chunk of money is available.

CMTs across the city are finding their own ways to choose a project. LCI leaves it to the individual teams to figure out if projects must be proposed via writing, on a form created by each team, and to what extent back-up, such as projected cost and who will do the work, should appear as research beforehand to help residents choose.

Also, should all the money be spent on one project? Or should it be spent on a couple, or multiple projects spread evenly across a large district like Westville/West Hills?

And if a project is tiny, who might be the fiduciary, or pass through organization? Perhaps a long-standing neighborhood nonprofit such as the Westville Village Renaissance Association or other group, through whom the funding would pass.

All those issues were engaged Wednesday night with a touch of urgency, because the sooner a project is decided upon, the sooner work can get done and money spent. All the funding must be spent by June next year, or each unspent dollar will be returned, explained Jillian Driscoll, the area’s LCI specialist.

CMT Co-Chair, and recently arrived Westvillian and recent aldermanic challenger, Joshua Van Hoesen, led the discussion. Van Hoesen, whose day job is in computer technology, had sent out surveys via email soliciting ideas. He received 29 responses, he reported, bearing 12 suggestions for projects. His aim on Wednesday night was to winnow them down to three, explore those further at next month’s meeting, and then have a vote.

“And I need a proposal, in writing, for each,” Driscoll said.

“We can do more,” Van Hoesen said.

“And we need more than 29 people,” added longtime Westvilian Kate Bradley, ​“in order to make a decision.”

Van Hoesen acknowledged that he could have done a better job getting the word out; some email addresses were inaccurate. In a democratic spirit, he offered to table his winnow-to-three plan in order, first, to do another email blast to the CMT’s list of voting members (those who have attended three of the last four meetings) and then do another winnowing afterwards.

In a free-wheeling, easygoing manner, the group decided to table the tabling and begin to talk about the dozen ideas, among the 29 respondents, which Van Hoesen had ranked by their popularity.

At the top of the list was renovating a playground on Hilltop Road, off of Valley Street, in the West Hills section. Next in popularity was a welcome sign for West Hills, and coming in third was installing a little kids’ playground in Edgewood Park, near the corner of Whalley and West Rock.

Before they discussed the others on the list of 12, a resident asked if Van Hoesen’s email system monitored for making sure that each resident voting member could vote or propose only one time.

I get it, Van Hoesen said; he would be sure to put that safeguard in the next email blast.

The other ideas, in addition, to the three front-runners that had been submitted included:

• a fund to help subsidize homeowners’ purchase of security cameras.
• a chunk of money to be given to the Westville Village Renaissance Association (WVRA).
• local trails.
• tree lights along Whalley Avenue.
• public art projects.
• a job center or community center.
• planting more trees.
• erecting a wall to protect against cars and people falling into the river at Pond Lilly Road and Whalley Avenue.

There followed general discussion, first, about the wisdom of choosing a range of projects as opposed to one or two bigger ones. Someone asked if they went the route of smaller expenditures for a range of projects, if the city could be asked for matching funds.

Alder Richard Furlow cautioned strongly against that. The city is in sober financial straits, he said, and having given $20,000 already to the CMTs, it is unlikely to give more.

Iva Johnson, who had proposed the Hilltop Park renovation, said she had in mind going to non-city funders, and perhaps simply asking for donations to create a garden or sand box or hopscotch area. Kids and young families are hanging out there now, she reported, in what amounts to abandoned park land.

“This does feel like a good fit for parks,” said Lizzy Donius, the director of WVRA. And the LCI specialist Driscoll added, ​“I’d be happy to talk to parks.”

It’s heart-breaking, Johnson reported, to see little kids playing on grass strewn with bottles and needles. Nothing huge has to be done, just some modest project to show some love.

Van Hoesen noted all the issues and pledged to get the emails out in plenty of time for the next meeting. Jan Underwood said, ​“It’s exciting there are so many ideas, but I’ll feel more comfortable with some more information.”