Meeting notes – WPCCA Housing Committee 6:00, Tuesday, June 4, 2019
- Indianola-Euclid Community Garden
- Resident co-chairs: Laura Bidwa Matthew Adair
- Residents: Bernard Hayman Elizabeth Kloss Michael Nelligan Chris Micciche
- Guests: Chad Ketler (Community Properties of Ohio)
BRIEF UPDATES
Preservation of 2 of the Campus Partners doubles: Erin Prosser will come back to committee about this in July.
Community gardens: Would still be great to have a coordinator to help in IE garden. IE will use money from Neighborhood Partnership Grant for a bigger sign with logo, an info station, and a couple smaller signs. They could use a mower (firefighters won’t mow grass anymore because of persistent high levels of dog poop); please contact Elizabeth Kloss if you have one she could keep in her garage for her son to use.
Supporting our rent-to-own NRP neighbors: Started talking about this around a year ago, but no action yet. Too big a topic for civic association to lead on its own so depending on partners like Campus Partners and Columbus Foundation. Question last month was would Matt Martin / Columbus Foundation be willing to convene a city-wide group about rent-to-own properties’ issues. (Campus Partners had offered to do this last year, but didn’t make any progress on it.) Laura contacted Matt this week and he said he wasn’t going to convene a meeting like that, but the city has been discussing it and there will be more information from them in June about this topic.
CPO PLANS FOR THE FORMER D&J CARRYOUT at N 4th and E 8th Chad Ketler shared the current renovation plans. All is dependent on finding funding for renovation and establishing a self-sustaining operating budget after that. (Have only secured 1/4 of renovation funds so far.) First floor would be a community flex space and fresh market. Health and wellness offerings could include things like healthy cooking classes, yoga, etc., that would be available to any resident of Weinland Park. The fresh market would incorporate job readiness training: a second “work crew” similar to the one currently at CPO that teaches maintenance, painting, drywall but have it train people to work in the market. Second floor would be CPO office space to use to see CPO residents for things like paying rent. The 1/4 funding CPO has secured is a Columbus Foundation grant. 60% of CPO’s business is fee-based property management for properties that they do not own. CPO plans to repair the fire-damaged CPO building at 8th and Indianola: HUD requirements have slowed things. They are now required to get a third contractor estimate. Must start work by end of year or will be fined for units being out of service.
UPDATE (on 6/11/19): HUD has approved the plans and work will start ASAP.