June 1st 2005
Dear Neighbors,
It's been a while since we've met solely as the Belmar Neighborhood,
so I wanted to send some updates and ask you to reserve some
upcoming dates.
First, the updates* In April 2004 a group of our residents met in
the Longino's meeting room to discuss the Neighborhood Assessment
Project in partnership with the Metro Dept. of Neighborhoods. This
was following the charette process the month before and the
completion of the surveys mailed to your homes. The data from that
assessment was compiled and made available for our review back in
November 2004. That month we had a neighborhood association meeting
to review the data. Essentially, the data was then given to us in a
matrix form that listed all of our neighborhood goals on a suggested
timeline. If you are interested in reviewing the data and matrix,
please visit www.bnainc.org, click on the "documents section" and
then click on the "neighborhood snapshot" link.
The matrix list seemed to take on 4 shapes: 1) The interest in a
newsletter for BNA; 2) The interest to have a regular place to
gather for meetings; 3) The continued interest in having an annual
neighborhood block party; and 4) systemic issues relating to the
Preston Corridor area and the railroad.
The 4th item relating to the Preston Corridor was the most involved
piece and needed strong attention to get the effort moving. This is
why over the last year BNA leadership has facilitated these
meetings, and asked for your attendance on those days. I want to
thank you for your patience in this process as it has paid off. We
will have an architectural rendering for the future Preston Corridor
ready for our review and comment in early July. Since we have
recently been notified by Councilman Jim King's office that the
Corridor project received some funding in the Mayor's budget for the
coming fiscal year (at least $300,000), Metro Gov will be able to
begin some infrastructure changes to the area (we hope) by the fall
2005. The entire effort will cost a great deal more than this
amount, however. So, our work is not done in terms of fund raising.
Nor is it complete in terms of reminding developers and other
partners of what the community would like to see move into the area
with respect to the private entities.
Items 1-3, along with the start-up of our regular meetings (again),
are now going to become our second set of projects for implementing
what the assessment revealed we would all like to see happen. Our
next general BNA meeting will be Wednesday, August 24th at 7pm. We
will meet at 4010 Henderson Avenue. A home right in our neighborhood
made available to us for meetings by Rhonda Henning! At the meeting
we will discuss the above-mentioned projects in greater detail. This
forum will give us the opportunity to hear all ideas and to regroup.
Please also note on your calendar Sunday, September 18, 2005 at 3pm
for the annual neighborhood fun day. We will meet in the last block
of Bourbon Avenue where it meets Franklin Avenue. More details will
follow.
Beyond the assessment findings, there are two tidbits of news to
report. Councilman Jim King had driven Mayor Abramson through our
neighborhood a few months back. They both did not like the look of
the railroad viaduct on Belmar leading into Camp Taylor, so
Councilman King is trying to put funds together to get it painted. I
can recall that being a "want" from our neighbors for some time now.
Councilman King is also interested in bringing the Metro Summer
Concert Series to our neighborhood, so we are scouting out land
where a gazebo might be built for this use and other events. Both of
these projects have an undetermined timeline at the moment.
I hope to see you all in August at our next meeting for a lively
conversation. It will be good to talk with everyone. Also, please
feel free to print and share this e-mail as I realize not everyone
has a computer. If you do not want to receive these e-mails, just
let me know and I'll remove you from the list.
Take care,
Liz D. Martin