5/10/2012 - West Side Leader
     

Akron City Council is set to award $203,500 in grants through the city’s Neighborhood Partnership Program to nonprofit neighborhood-based organizations.

At the May 7 meeting, Helen Tomic, Planning and Urban Development comprehensive planning manager, explained the Neighborhood Partnership Organization was formed to provide small neighborhood-based organizations with resources to strengthen and improve their neighborhoods through safety, education, cleanup or vacant lot improvement projects.

To date, 475 projects have been funded through the program, using $6 million to improve neighborhoods, she said.

According to the legislation, Akron, working in partnership with the Akron Community Foundation, has agreed to provide up to $100,000 to fund the program. The city’s share of the funds will come equally from investment income and income tax revenue, according to the legislation.

Among the organizations receiving funds and their projects are:

• Let’s Grow Akron Inc.: $7,500 for the Harvest of Hope program, a youth farming and produce project;

• Project GRAD Akron: $7,500 for the Expo for Success effort that provides academic and enrichment program information;

• College for Kids: $7,000 for a program that introduces inner-city youth ages 8-16 to careers, curriculum and professionals in diverse fields;

• Akron Community Service Center and Urban League: $3,000 for the Elegant Evening Senior Citizens program;

• Highland Square Neighborhood Association: $3,000 for the Art in the Square Festival; and

• Fifth Annual Fathers Walk: $2,500.

The grant awards are set to be approved at the next Council meeting.

In other business at the meeting, Council voted to place the following onto the consent agenda for approval at its next meeting: an ordinance to sell a $1 million hot-in-place recycling asphalt piece of equipment purchased in 2009 back to the company due to its lack of use for $600,000; and an ordinance authorizing advertising for bids for this year’s estimated $1 million replacement of a total of 8,600 feet of failing water mains.

Council also unanimously approved a resolution urging U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahue to extend the current moratorium, which expires May 15, on the closing of post offices and Akron’s mail processing facility, and urging Congress to enact comprehensive postal legislation.

Councilman Jeff Fusco (D-at large) said Council is asking officials to “take time to do it right in terms of the restructuring of the U.S. Postal Service.”

The resolution is being sent to several members of Congress and the Senate, as well as Donahue and U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission Chair Ruth Goldway.

Two public hearings are scheduled for the next Akron City Council meeting May 14, including: a review of a proposal from Akron Children’s Hospital to construct a new parking deck at the southwest corner of West Exchange and Locust streets; and a request to establish a mulch manufacturing business at 1669 Copley Road. The meeting will be held in Council Chambers on the third floor of the Akron Municipal Building, 166 S. High St. Committee meetings will begin at 2 p.m., also in Council Chambers.

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