Final presentation–and community vote–will be later this year
Five committees that are working on community improvement projects as part of this year’s Inner City Improvement Plan gave half-year rough draft plans at a Wednesday evening meeting.
The Inner City Improvement Plan, now in its third year, is an initiative in which $300,000 each year for four years has been allotted by the Henderson City Commission to improve the inner city area, which according to Mayor Brad Staton, extends from Green Street to Atkinson Street, and Washington Street to Sand Lane.
Staton said the mid-year update includes drafts of final proposals, which will be presented later in the year when residents will be invited to hear the proposals and then vote on which of the plans they like best.
The city will then use $300,000 earmarked for the plans to implement them. Staton said the $300,000 is a starting point and further general fund money has been used to complete projects the past two years.
Here are the plans:
Youth Enrichment Committee
Kelsi Dunham Johnston, the executive director of the United Way of Henderson County, and Danielle Anguish, the children services manager at the Henderson County Public Library, presented a plan to increase mentorship of youth.
Johnston said they will propose to the city of Henderson a method to more easily request time off during the workday so that employees can spend time with children at school. She said she’d like for the plan to start with the city and once it takes off, see other organizations follow the lead.
Anguish said it’s a mentorship model, and many children in the community need mentors.
Their slide presentation stated, “A replicable, intentional volunteer strategy aligning workforce and youth engagement” with “City of Henderson igniting the SPARK.”
SPARK is their acronym: “Supporting Positive Action and Relationships for Kids.”
Blight and Affordable Housing Committee
Dr. Michelle Chappell presented a proposal for a new renter and new homeowner training program. With it, a new renter or homeowner would be provided $1,000 for a down payment or a rental deposit provided that they attend five classes covering topics crucial to new homeowners and/or renters.
Possible classes include topics covering leases and mortgages, financial stability, maintaining good credit and property management, she said.
Possible presenters could be local bankers, those involved in the Henderson Homeless Coalition, facilitators of the GAIN initiative (a local program facilitated locally by Audubon Kids Zone in which participants learn about achieving financial stability and self-reliance), the Housing Authority of Henderson and the Kentucky Housing Authority, Chappell said.
One of the goals, she said, is to push renters to become homeowners in the Inner City.
Community Empowerment Committee
One of the plans of this committee is to hold an event, the Community Park Fun Day, said committee member Bobbi Jo Marx, the director of community engagement at Audubon Kids Zone. Marx said it could be an event that utilizes the JFK Center, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue or the Audubon Kids Zone parking lot. She said the committee is hoping to get a well-known guest speaker for the event.
Another proposal is to create a neighborhood accountability project in which neighbors resource ideas to raise the quality of life, a plan in which they can “be the change they hope to see,” Marx said, adding examples of initiatives that could come from this are benches now seen at Audubon Apartments and the mural outside of AKZ.
Public Safety Committee
This committee spoke about several proposals. They include acquiring funding for solar-powered mountable lights that residents can choose to mount in their yards. There’s not a lot of lighting in the East End, said Hailey Black, a family advocate for AKZ who spoke.
Another option is installing blue light emergency poles at local parks so that children who are old enough to go to parks without parents but don’t yet have a cell phone can notify authorities if there is an emergency.
Black and Kristie Randolph, the executive director of the Chloe Randolph Organization, spoke about blessing boxes, which Randoph said have arisen because of food insecurity for many. They said a possible program to decrease food insecurity is hosting a series of cooking classes that would educate, form community and leave community members with easy recipes to use to feed themselves and their family.
They also mentioned the possibility of starting a neighborhood watch.
Economic Development Committee
This committee focused on developing Atkinson Street, the busiest street in the inner city. Members have discussed working with business owners to better care for sidewalks, developing vacant lots on the street and funding for grants for façade work for businesses on the street.
In a side note, local government observer Larry Majors, who runs the Facebook page Justice Coalition of Henderson County Kentucky, asked that since Inner City residents pay taxes, shouldn’t infrastructure proposals mentioned in some of the committee’s plans and past projects, such as lighting and sidewalks, be paid for with the city’s general funds.
Staton responded that Majors knows that the $300,000 is an earmark, that the city ends up spending more than $300,000 and that money does come out of the general fund.
“I don’t know why you come to these meetings,” he told Majors. He said Majors doesn’t write what actually occurs and added that he’d like to get the Facebook commentator involved in some local projects.
