From the President
I hope that the summer months find everyone well. Who says it's not "sunny and seventy" in East Price Hill. I have several items I would like to update the membership on.
First of all, we all owe a debt of thanks to Kara Watson of Price Hill Will and Americorp. She organized approximately 60 volunteers from Americorp to weed, mulch and plant the tree boxes along Warsaw Av. Robin Henderson of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful also deserves a word of thanks for her part of this operation. Many members of EPHIA performed this task last year and boy was it hot. So I know for those who participated in this endeavor last year, we are all grateful. Thank you notes to be sent in short order.
Next, the City of Cincinnati Park Board has dedicated funds towards 2 projects at Wilson Commons Park. $12,000 has been dedicated towards a new East Price Hill gateway at the intersection Elberon and Mt. Hope Avenues. $90,000 has been dedicated towards lighting and other infrastructure upgrades at the Park. John Wall has accepted chairing the sub-committee of the Housing and Development Committee that will handle the discussions with the city architect (Diego Jordan) and the Park Board reps to bring forth appropriate plans for these projects. Please contact either John Wall or Mary Croft if you are interested in being a part of the design team to welcome folks to our neighborhood.
We also have secured both a $300 and a $225 grant from different organizations to host summer concerts at Mt. Echo Park. Although the amount is not as much as we secured last year, I hope that we can put on as wonderful an event as last year.
I now have been contacted by a representative from Artworks who states that East Price Hill has been selected as one of the six neighborhoods to receive a mural this summer. That means a group of interested members will be involved with the transformation of a solid wall to a work of art. If interested please contact me. Many thanks to Diana Valkaria of Price Hill Will for preparing the application form for this project.
I hope this funding sparks an interest for people to become active in not only this sub-committee but in the organization as a whole. We have many positive things taking place that should overshadow any negative things that do occur. With your help on Court Watch, Beautification, Citizen's on Patrol, Problem Properties or the picnic committees, we as a neighborhood can make this area, once again an owner occupied neighborhood.
As previously reported, the city is repairing the curbs and sidewalks along Purcell Av. as per our CPR (Community Priority Requests). After discussions with the appropriate members of the Department of Transportation and Engineering Department, curb repair will also take place on Bassett St. from Elberon to Hawthorne Av. There also is asphalt repair to take place in the Carson and Wessels Av. area. This infrastructure work marks a significant amount of dollars being spent in East Price Hill by the City of Cincinnati and it has been acknowledged by thank you notes being sent to the city manager and the D.O.T.E. department.
One of our recently re-elected directors has informed me that he will unfortunately have to step down as both the NSP chairman and as a director due to personal reasons. Keith's hard work in conjunction with our treasurer, John Ridder, got us through a 3 year audit of our NSP funds. Keith's efforts will be missed and we hope that he will be able to resume his commitment to EPHIA in the near future. Director Steve Klatte has graciously volunteered to take over as NSP manager and he will begin assuming these duties after attending the NSP proposal meeting on Thursday June 7th. This is a large task as it works closely with all the committees for the various projects along with the treasurer.
East Price Hill will unfortunately not be represented at the Cincinnati Cup to be held this June 23rd as our local soap box derby racer, Noah Drout, is unable to race that particular day.
Lastly, June's meeting shall form the nominating committee for the upcoming November general election. The nominating committee will need 4 volunteers from the floor and 3 shall be appointed by me. The committee members will then be given an evenly divided list of members from the membership officer, Darrell Shelton. The committee members shall call the members on their list to enlist candidates for the officer positions of EPHIA. Please consider volunteering for this effort. Thanks, once again goes out to Jim Turner who chaired both the nominating and election committee in 2006.
When I first ran for president of this organization, I had two main goals that I felt needed attention. One was to have our membership better informed of the good things that take place in our neighborhood and in our Parks. If you at all visit our website you will see a full slate on the calendar of events. I encourage use of our parks in particular, our gem Mt. Echo. We should proudly boast that his park is in our neighborhood and should attend the events that our offered. Secondly, I wanted the staff at city hall to recognize that East Price Hill needed their help with our infrastructure. It appears that some have heard our call. The city recently wrapped up the focus center effort which targeted parts of both East and West Price Hill for housing, health and police violations. The city dedicated $127,000 towards our Community Priority Request. Two are mentioned above; the third is $25,000 for temporary retaining walls along the Elberon Av hill slides. Only Sayler Park was dedicated more funds of the west side neighborhoods. With the approximately $350,000 in curb and asphalt repair work, the dedicated funding puts our neighborhood second only to East Walnut Hills, which was dedicated $690,000. We received a grant last year to put on a concert in Mt. Echo last year in addition to the Everybody's Backyard Picnic/ Concert. Salsa dance lessons are being offered on a weekly basis at the park also. \ Anyway, what I am getting at is, I will not be running for re-election as president of this neighborhood association. I have three small children that I no longer want to tell I cannot do this or that because I have to attend a meeting, prepare paperwork or an agenda, or I have to call this person or that organization. I have done the best I knew how while trying not to direct things down the "my way or the highway" process. I am confident that there is a member up to the task of continuing the progress EPHIA has made of returning this neighborhood to an owner occupied neighborhood. I will continue being an active member and actively search for those problem property owners along with continuing to get the County level government to change their archaic delinquent tax rules.
Hope to see many at the summer concert at Mt. Echo Park on June 14th and keep yourself posted regarding the EPHIA summer picnic to be held July 16th at Mt. Echo Park, organized by director Barbara Niehoff. See you all June 18th.
Dan Boller
PO Box 5420, Cincinnati, OH 45205 • Phone: 513-919-9401 • info@ephia.org
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