Street light upgrades, zoning changes, water supply highlight CPNA meeting
by Nic Custer
The Central Park Neighborhood Association discussed grant applications for lighting upgrades, mobile meetings, Riverside Tabernacle playscape improvements, Kearsley Street zoning and water distribution updates at their February meeting
Norma Sain, executive director of the Court Street Village Non Profit Housing Corporation, outlined plans for grant applications and asked residents of other suggestions of improvements to apply for. She will be applying to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint (CFGF) for a $5,000 Next Level grant to fund installation of additional streetlights on the bridges over Interstate 475 on Second and Third streets.
She said Second Street currently only has one light and she wants to make college students and nearby residents feel safer as they cross the bridges. An additional $1,000 CFGF grant proposal seeks to fund food for neighborhood cleanups and possibly teeshirts.
She said she is also looking for $10,000 in grant funding to install 10 additional LED streetlights in the neighborhood. She reported she met with city of Flint officials to discuss options.
Sain told members she would be applying to the Genesee County Land Bank for the Central Park and Fairfield Village neighborhoods to become a Clean and Green site again this year. Last year the program funded regular mowing of 14 vacant lots in Central Park and 36 in Fairfield Village by a neighborhood resident.
She also said the group may seek funds to take down five crumbling garages in the neighborhood and for property improvements on handrails and porches.
Amber McDonald, neighborhood program assistant for Court Street Village, reported that last summer the Grand Traverse District Neighborhood Association held two of its regular meetings outdoors in vacant lots to get neighbors interested and involved in the group. The mobile meetings were short and participants brought snacks and their own chairs. She said the Fairfield Neighborhood Village Council will be trying out a couple of mobile meetings this summer and suggested CPNA also try it. The group decided to move its regularly scheduled June meeting to the vacant lots at 606 Crapo St.
Bev Bergler from Riverside Tabernacle told members that a new playscape the church ordered has been delivered and will be installed when the weather warms up.
Vice President Ed Custer reported that the two homes at the corner of Kearsley and Crapo streets, east of the alley, will be zoned MR1 along with most of the rest of the neighborhood. Kearsley Street, west of the alley, will have denser zoning as MR2 and MR3 including the stone-covered home at the corner of Thomson Street, facing Kearsley Street.
In other news, McDonald reported there were 250 cases of bottled water and 200 test kits delivered to the CSVNP Neighborhood House for neighbors to pick up during regular business hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.
The group meets next at 7 p.m., March 10 at Court Street Village Non Profit Neighborhood House, 737 East St.
