2014 Annual Report

Community civic association

W P C C A A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 4 1

2014 was a great year for Weinland Park. We saw the collaboration, determination, and pride of a neighborhood truly shine. From the Weinland Park Story Book to the Weinland Park “Hollywood” sign; the bright future of our wonderful neighborhood was on display.

Some of the great accomplishments of 2014:

Weinland Park Story Book

Weinland Park Calendar

Successful launch of the Grant Park Homes

Successful Kick off host neighborhood for “Volunteer Columbus”

Successful and VERY popular community trips

Received and began work on the Greater Ohio Policy Center’s recommendations for a stable community

Began the process of re-branding our neighbor-hood via long efforts

All these things, and many more, are the proud milestones reached in just12 short months. 2015 promises to be a big year for WP and I look for-ward to all of the great projects coming to fruition and the new ideas that will come from moving for-ward in Weinland Park’s rebirth and renaissance. I am honored to serve this wonderful neighborhood and join hand-in-hand with each of our neighbors as we build a greater Weinland Park.

Brandyn L. McElroy

President

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

W P C C A A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 4

Chairs: Michael Wilkos, Evelyn Van Til

Monthly Litter Clean-up: 5 litter clean-ups were held between March and October, held on the first Saturday of those months. Each activity av-eraged 9 people and more than 175 bags of litter were picked up. Keep Columbus Beautiful pro-vided litter pickers, vests, gloves, and bags and The Columbus Foundation provided coffee, do-nuts, fruit, and water for volunteers. Over the past several years the neighborhood’s cleanli-ness has significantly improved and the regular clean-ups have been reduced in number.

Root & Roofs 2014 May 10th

: Despite heavy rain, over 150 residents and supporters attended a half-day program that included a comprehen-sive litter clean-up, flower planting, and commu-nity gardening at Godman Guild, 4

th Street

Farms, and in the public areas around Weinland Park Elementary School and in the two City parks. A community lunch was provided by Local Matters inside Godman Guild with a brief pro-gram. Free t-shirts were provided to all volun-teers again this year. Over 3,000 bulbs and per-ennial plants were planted and 700 bags of mulch were distributed. OSU Extension provided volunteers to over a dozen homes of seniors. Veritas Church also provided volunteers again this year.

Again in 2014, Lowe’s Home Improvement pro-vided a significant discount for all materials pur-chased. For the second time, the Columbus Rec-reation and Parks Department provided free mulch for public areas and has committed to 2015. In 2014, plants and mulch were also sold to community residents at a great discount, rais-ing $400 for WPCCA. The event is scheduled for May 16

th, 2015.

L Brands WP Service Day July 16th

: For the third year, approximately 50 interns from L Brands joined a handful of WP residents for a service day. The day included weeding, edging, mulching, and trimming the grounds at Weinland Park Elementary School, 4

th Street Farms, and

throughout the public park. A litter clean-up also occurred on public streets and alleys throughout the neighborhood netting 30 bags of trash. This event is design each year to prepare the park for the annual festival.

BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE

2


BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE

Make a Difference Day October 25th

: Led through a relationship with HandsOn Central Ohio, over 150 volunteers from Capital Universi-ty, Cardinal Health, The Columbus Foundation, North Union High School, Ohio Reading Corps, OSU, and RICOH USA planted over 4,000 bulbs in various locations around the community in-cluding Community Properties of Ohio court-yards, traffic circles on North Grant Avenue, sidewalk bump-outs at 9

th Avenue and Indiano-

la, Indianola Park, Weinland Park, Godman Guild, Huckleberry House, AUCHO-I, and the Elementary School and Schoenbaum Family Center. Additionally, volunteers mulched, weed-ed, and prepared the 4

th Street Farms and God-

man Guild community gardens for winter. All volunteers were treated to a free lunch and tshirts from HandsOn Central Ohio.

Weinland Park Neighborhood Welcome Signs: These signs were installed in 2013, but unfortunately damaged in 2014. Graffiti was re-moved from signs twice, and lettering was re-painted. However, the sign at Summit and 11

th

Avenue continues to lean due a car accident and the sign at Indianola and East 5

th Avenue

continues to miss the letter “p”. Improvements are planned for 2015.

Increasing Trees and Adding Flower Boxes: The WPCCA worked in partnership with the Neighborhood Design Center to secure a $14,100 grant from the Joseph A. Jeffrey Fund in December 2013 to support more street trees in locations that do not qualify for the City of Co-lumbus Free Street Tree program. In 2014, an additional, $24,300 was secured through a part-nership grant with Community Properties of Ohio (CPO) for additional trees on CPO proper-ties and throughout the neighborhood. Also in

2014, a property assessment was completed for every parcel in Weinland Park to identify possi-ble locations for more trees. A total of 196 prop-erties were identified as eligible for the City-funded program and 144 properties were identi-fied as eligible for the grant-funded program (meaning locations on private property, but that contributes to improving the street tree canopy).


COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

4

Chair: Jennifer Mankin

Produced 10 monthly editions of the newslet-ter from January through October

Worked with designer to develop with 6

branding options for neighborhood, narrowed to 2 in January, targeted for final selection in February 2015

Researched and began discussion of com-

munications policies Maintained Google calendar throughout the

year Posted regular announcements on Google

groups and moderated Promoted NextDoor.com

Maintained active Facebook page - likes in-

creased from 350 to 450 Designed flyer for Holiday Potluck, delivered

door-to-door Attended regular Collaborative communica-

tions meetings Kept website software and hosting up-to-

date; reworked homepage Created Tumblr blog, collecting popular imag-

es from the neighborhood

Worked with the Wexner Center to produce the Weinland Park Story Book.


COMMUNITY

GARDENS & 4th Street Farms

5

Chairs: Evelyn Van Til & Wood Drake

Our community benefited on so many levels. Together we learned, we grew, and we made a difference.

We got to know our neighbors through service. We planted delicious perennials like herbs, fruits, and bushes. We harvested hundreds of gallons of rainwater, preventing it from running off into the Olentangy and reducing our use of potable city water in the garden. And, we shared herbs, fruits, seeds, and more with our community. Paired with all the other wonderful transformations in Weinland Park, this grant helped empower us in transforming our community.

We have learned many lessons through-out our growth. First, collaboration is key. Pooling knowledge and resources has helped us to become more successful, sustainable, and strategic than we would have been on our own. Secondly, we have learned that nature is a difficult task-master. Keeping our goals specific, meas-urable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented has been our practice. Addition-ally, flexibility and resilience have been lessons learned from both nature, and culture.


Chair: Julia Orban & Christine Happel

Organized a workday for the Bird Sanctuary which was was well attended and celebrated Leslie Passmore's beautiful vision.

Helped to coordinate resources for Bird Sanctuary.

Organized a community building Strawberry Picking Trip (over 50 attendees).

Cooking club cooked food using neighbor-hood recipes for the Civic Association meet-ing.

Organized apple picking trip in September (80 attendees).

Commitee members led two nutrition work-shops (serving smoothies at the festival and at Zumba class).

Helped organize healthy snacks and collabo-rated with Godman Guild and Community Properties of Ohio to organize a neighborhood Zoo lights trip (65 neighbors attended).

Assisted a neighbor, Dustin Jones, with start-ing a Strength training class with the R.I.S.E youth

Provided ongoing publicity and logistic sup-port to the Saturday Zumba Classes.

6

FOOD & WELLNESS COMMITTEE


HOUSING COMMITTEE

7

Members of the Housing Committee worked with Godman Guild and OSU Extension to hold a housing fair in January. The fair was well-attended and had representation from 24 agencies that provide various housing and utility services.

Representatives of the Greater Ohio Policy Center discussed the draft executive sum-mary of the center's report on the housing market in Weinland Park. Feedback from the Housing Committee members provided direc-tion to the center in finishing the report. Two months later, the committee reviewed the rec-ommendations in the final report.

A representative of the city's Plan-ning Division explained the draft University District plan and re-ceived feedback from Housing Committee members.

Campus Partners representatives discussed the university's pro-posed rezoning of the properties immediately south of South Cam-pus Gateway, its plans for the development of those properties and the selection of a pri-vate development firm to direct the project. Housing Committee members suggested changes to the rezoning proposal which were incorporated into Campus Partners' applica-tion. The committee also heard from repre-sentatives of Community Housing Network about its plans to construct a new residential building as part of the south of Gateway pro-ject.

The Housing Committee heard regular reports on the renovation of Grant Commons, new housing construction at Grant Park, and plans for renovation of single-family homes.

Representatives of the city's Development Department and of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commissions discussed the proper-ty tax abatement for homeowners who re-ceived home repair grants.

A new committee chair was appointed in No-vember.

The Housing Committee

heard regular reports on the

renovation of Grant Com-

mons, new housing construc-

tion at Grant Park, and plans

for renovation of single-


LAND USE & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The committee received new leadership with Joyce Hughes as chair.

The committee held its first 2014 meeting in November to discuss the Weinland Park Business Retention and Expansion Survey report conducted by The Ohio State Univer-sity Extension in 2013. Four business owners attended the meeting; discussed the re-port; and asked for additional information on the investments and changes.

The second meeting was held on January 14, 2015 and drew 11 business persons. Reports included: representatives of Wagennbrenner Development discussing the ren-ovation and construction at Grant Commons and Grant Park; Campus Partners representatives dis-cussing plans for the former Kelley’s carry-out building; and a report from the executive director of the University Community Business Associa-tion. The group also expressed interest in investi-gating the possibility of city incentives for building facade improvements.

The committee will meet again on March 4, 2015 at 12:30 p.m. at Godman Guild Association.


The Safety and Mobility Committee provided oversight for an online and paper survey of res-idents regarding public safety matters.

Representatives of Directions for Youth and Families and Community Properties of Ohio Management Services presented information on the Neighborhood Options for Youth pro-gram and the use of special-duty police officers to work with juveniles and property owners.

The committee discussed and made recom-mendations on the city's proposed capital im-provements projects designed to improve pe-destrian and vehicular safety in Weinland Park.

The committee successfully requested that the city hold off code enforcement actions regard-ing broken sidewalks until natural gas line up-grades were completed in the neighborhood.

Ahmed Ebady joined Chris Orban as co-chair of the committee.

Representatives of the committee attended the citywide Annual Block Watch Coordinators

Meeting in May sponsored by the Columbus Division of Police.

The Safety and Mobility Committee and the Neighborhood Festival Planning Committee co-operated in holding the annual National Night Out event in Weinland Park on August 5.

The committee discussed traffic signage that could help prevent accidents involving motor vehicles and children playing in the roadway on North Sixth Street.

The committee promoted action to stop children and youth from dangerous play on the roof of a garage.

Representatives of the committee presented information on the public safety improvements in Weinland Park to the monthly meeting of the University District Safety Committee in October.

9

SAFETY & MOBILTY COMMITTEE

The committee successfully

requested the city to cease

code enforcement actions

on broken sidewalks until

natural gas line upgrades


The planning committee met numerous times, beginning in May, to plan the an-nual neighborhood festival which was held Saturday, August 16, from noon to 4 p.m. The festival's theme was "New Beginnings." The festival drew an estimated 500 people.

New to the festival in 2014 were two food trucks, which proved to be popular. In addition, the planning committee rented popcorn and cotton candy machines; both were sold at a relatively low price.

The total expenses for the festival were $4,424 with the largest single expense, $2,800, being the rental of the large tent, dance floor, tables and chairs. Dona-tions for the festival came from The Columbus Foundation, Neighborhood Part-nership Grant, Community Properties of Ohio, Wagenbrenner Development, Weinland Park Community Civic Association, and residents.

A total of 98 written survey questionnaires were completed at the festival. Among the highlights of the survey were: 77% of respondents rated the festival's activi-ties as "excellent," while 21% rated them as "good"; 93% of respondents agreed that the festival "helps a lot" to "build community pride for our neighborhood"; and 99% of respondents agreed that the information tables are helpful.

The planning committee held its first meeting on February 2, 2015, to prepare for the 2015 festival, which will be held on Saturday, August 8, from noon to 4 p.m.

SUMMER FESTIVAL

10


FINANCIAL REPORT

Documents

2014 Annual Report