Using the input received from residents at Monday night’s neighborhood meeting, the City of Tyler has created a work schedule for the Fall 2009 Neighborhood Empowerment Works (NEW) program. Monday’s meeting provided residents an opportunity to meet with representatives from the City to share their ideas and concerns about their neighborhood.
The NEW neighborhood’s boundaries are from Gentry Parkway to North Englewood, to Crescent Drive, to West Vance to North Ross Avenue (see map attached).
“Resident input is critical to this program,” said Neighborhood Services Director Brenda Johnson. “The residents know their neighborhood better than anyone and are in the best position to identify opportunities for improvement.”
The NEW program enhances the quality of life for Tyler residents – one neighborhood at a time – by intensely concentrating City services in a specific area for four weeks. Various City departments use information gathered from the neighborhood meeting as well as an examination of the area to identify services that could make an immediate impact on the neighborhood.
Activities scheduled for the Fall 2009 NEW program include:
· Mowing yards;
· Picking up trash, including removing large items from yards and moving it to the curb;
· Clean-up at two parks;
· Minor painting and repairs to the exterior of homes in the neighborhood; and,
· Trimming branches and bushes.
Residents and City employees will work on these activities Nov. 5 through Dec. 4. On Jan. 13, the Neighborhood Services Department will make a report to the City Council at their regularly scheduled meeting on the outcomes of the Fall 2009 NEW program. A wrap-up meeting with the neighborhood will be held on Jan. 19 to discuss the results and how to sustain them while giving the residents the opportunity to celebrate their efforts.
This will be the eighth NEW neighborhood since the City started the program in 2006.
“The NEW program is an important tool that the City uses to stop neighborhood decline in its tracks,” said Mayor Pro Tem Donald Sanders. “By involving the neighbors and leveraging City services, the program has proven to be successful in encouraging reinvestment in Tyler’s older neighborhoods. Get rid of the grime…get rid of the crime.”