Thatwoman.files.wordpress.com



Lorain City Council Committee Statement Feb 14th 2011 Charleston Village Soc. As most of you are aware , Charleston Village Society has been trying since 1989 to “preserve” in Lorain’s oldest neighborhood, the ambiance, the history and the quality of life for our residents , no matter if they own , rent or lease their properties. In 1993 we achieved a non- profit status for Charleston Village Society. Everything that is done by the Charleston Village Society is done by “volunteers and donations to the organization- 100 percent of which goes to the projects earmarked ”. We have over the years partnered with sister organizations, the city and the county and have had a productive working relationship. Thanks to those partnerships and our volunteers, we have received various awards, two recently from Lorain County Beautiful for our work in Charleston Pioneer Cemetery and Settlers’ Watch. As Mayor Krasienko, Lorain Police Dept., Lorain Utilities Dept., this council , various Director s and the Lorain Port Authority can attest, we have on numerous occasions through the years lent letters of support for various federally funded projects . We try diligently to maintain neutrality and to work with whatever “director” or administration is in place. That being said there have been times when the needs and integrity of our “preservation district “ have become the priority and we have been on opposite sides such as the Shawnee Casino debacle, with the Foltin Administration and Community Development Dept. with regard to the Condos in Lorain’s oldest park, now known as Veterans Park . However I would like to think that we have all benefitted from those occasions and learned some things that would not have been otherwise explored. To some, the statement made in the minutes of Jan 18th 2011 by Community Development Director Tracy Urdija was probably not of great significance to the Federal Programs Committee of this legislative body. And I quote :“Not only do the seniors have to be income eligible, but there are certain areas of the city that we will not be able to go into to help them with windows. One of the areas will be South Lorain because that has been declared a Historic District. “ City government must realize that the general public does not have the experience of dealing with “federal rules and regulations” we see only what is written and coming from an area in government that does have the expertise they are believed. When using the term “Historical” in what I believe to be a somewhat less than circumspect manner this can cause an erroneous perception by the general public and a compounding of a negative perception when trying to preserve the history of this area. For many, many months this city and county have been caught up in a CRA mess due to “wording” and continues to deal with that. Charleston Village also happens to be in the oldest CRA designation area - area one. So we too have some knowledge in that regard. To be honest we no longer want to concentrate on “clean up after the fact” The ripple effects of misspeak when it comes to legislation can have consequences down the line. I would just ask you the Administration, the Directors and this council to be very sure of all the facts – we don’t need any more legal, political or language entanglements . As far as the windows for seniors situation I was assured by Justin Cook of the OHPO that you can do windows. And on a personal note it seems to me that instead of “road blocks” and what CAN’T be done when dealing with the needs of your clients – the citizens of Lorain - the way of doing business should be and hopefully is - how can we accomplish………. Thank You ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download