NEIGHBORHOOD CHAMPIONS
The 17 Strong Advisory Board’s members will be chosen to represent the type of neighborhood they live in — urban, traditional or suburban.
Here are the city's seven traditional neighborhoods: North End, 4th Ward/Jefferson, East End, Lindenwald, Prospect Hill, Highland Park and Armondale.
Here are the five urban-core areas: Downtown/Central Business District, German Village, 2nd Ward/South East, Dayton Lane and Rossville.
These are the five suburban areas: Enterprise park, New London, Millikin, Two Mile and Washington.
City officials this week met with about three dozen residents who want to make Hamilton’s 17 neighborhoods stronger, and to strengthen neighborhood relationships with city government.
Three council members — Vice Mayor Carla Fiehrer, Kathleen Klink and Timothy Naab — by the end of next week hope to name nine "neighborhood champions" from among the dozens of applicants to the new 17 Strong Advisory Board. Fiehrer, Klink and Naab themselves also will be members of the panel, along with city staffers who will not vote on issues.
Officials hope the new board will give more momentum to Hamilton's Sense of Place/17 Strong effort, which aspires to give neighborhoods more of a voice in city government. The panel also will have the clout to recommend how some $40,000 to $50,000 in money available for micro-grants to established organizations can be used to host neighborhood events or make community improvements.
Tuesday’s meeting was vital because, “It was important for us to not just look at somebody’s application form and assume whatever they wrote down was everything we wanted to know about them,” Klink said. Also: “We knew people would have questions, and so we wanted to be able to create an environment where we could talk more carefully about this advisory board, the level of commitment, the level of energy, what it is we’re going to do, and then answer their questions so they could determine whether they wanted to continue on.”
At the end of the approximately 90-minute session, Klink said, “a couple of people said, ‘This is so great, but you know, the level of commitment is more than I can handle right now because of other responsibilities.’”
Among other things, potential neighborhood champions expressed hope for things the board can accomplish, and how the new board should function, Swift said. The panel's first meeting date has not been set.
“Any time you can empower your neighbors, and have a dynamic neighborhood, my gosh, think of what that means,” Klink said. “It’s huge.”
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