Hello All:

I was looking through the agenda of the upcoming City Council session and I stumbled across Introductory 416 which states that the Plymouth/Exchange Neighborhood Association, Inc will be receiving $44,000 from the City of Rochester.

I think it's great that the City is willing to invest in its neighborhoods.  This is a fantastic opportunity that I think we use to benefit many neighbors if we work together.

The $44,000 is stated to be given to the PLEX neighborhood association for the purpose of:

1.  Door to door distribution of flyers.

2.  Direct telephone contacts.

3.  Website updates.

4.  Business Contacts.

5.  Email distribution.

6.  Regular membership meetings.

7.  PLEX block club summitt.

8.  Special outdoor events.

9.  Post cards.

10.  Surveys

After looking at the items that the $44,000 is meant to cover, I think we can do this ourselves without having to spend any of the $44,000.  I am not very familiar with how the City distributes funding but this seems like A LOT of money for the activities listed.   I would be more than willing to volunteer my time to help get most of that done at almost no cost.  I assume the extremely high cost that is stated is to allow for an outside vendor to do all of these things. We can do this ourselves and use that money to create an enormous amount of benefit for the surrounding community.  $44,000 is a lot of money.   We could create an awesome park, or help some elderly residents by having their house painted, or invest in some neighborhood gardens, or use it as seed money to help some of the kids at school 19 start a few small business enterprises to build pride in the community. 

Plus if we put the money to work in a really productive way and don't just spend it to get flyers passed out, I would think we may be high on the list to get additional funding for our community down the line.

 

Is anyone willing to volunteer some time to try to get this list accomplished for very little cost so we can put these funds to a great use.  We can all meet to brainstorm ideas and track what has been done with the money and what projects were the best.  

Can anyone shed some light on how this process works??  Does the City monitor how and when the money is spent etc.  There does not seem to be any checks and balances to help monitor the process.

I think we should ask City Council to hold off on voting on this so we can all meet to talk about how we can make the most of this fantastic opportunity.  I think at the very least the community should be able to hear what specifically the funds are planned to be used for.  After all, as residents and tax payers it is "our" money.

Below is what i read on the City website regarding this proposal to be voted on at this coming Tuesday's City Council meeting.

http://www.cityofrochester.gov/councilproceedings/

Feel free to contact the City at 428-7421 to request that the vote be tabled, or you can show up to speak at the meeting this Tuesday evening.

Let's make the most of this awesome opportunity.

Who is willing to help get these things accomplished so we can spend the money on things that will benefit the neighborhood?