Thursday, July 10, 2008

Grant Ideas?

The City of Dayton has announced a neighborhood mini-grant program. The St. Anne's Hill Historic Society is looking for your input on what you would like to see in your neighborhood. What would you do with a few thousand dollars to improve our community ?

Keep in mind, it would be on a very limited budget. However, this is a great opportunity to leverage City money to make the most of our fundraising efforts. Some ideas include banners, large flower planters, permanent sculptures, or even water lines for our neighborhood parks.

Quote:
The corrected timeline for the grant process is as follows:
  • July 11: Postcards mailed to all neighborhood groups and business associations announcing workshops.
  • July 26 (Saturday, 10AM) or July 29 (Tuesday, 6:30PM): Mandatory workshop; applications will be available at this time. Interested organizations must send a representative to one of these two brief informational sessions. Location: City Hall, 6th Floor Training Room.
  • August 22: Applications due by 4:30PM.
  • September 5: Decisions announced.
  • August 31, 2009: All projects must be completed by this date.

So let's hear it... what do you think? Post a comment below or write to news@stanneshill.org with your ideas. If you want to chat about it in detail, just stop by our events on July 19th and talk to one of the SAH Board Members.

Also, someone out there posted these great photos from the Garden Tour . . . Enjoy!

9 comments:

John said...

This is great news!

I don't think that banners would be a good use of the funds.

Large flower planters would fit in with the look of St. Anne's Hill and they would be great for tours and such.

But, I think that the BEST use of the money would be permanent sculptures! They would add to the "art-friendly" vibe of The Hill :)

I don't know anything about water lines but anything for our neighborhood parks would be great.

-John on McClure St.

BobbieP said...

Jim Latham said...
Hmm..
I thought there was already water to the park spaces - I thought we submitted and received grants for water at Victorian, Alice Park & the Fifth Street gateway when I was pres/priority board rep.

Anyway, some large caliper trees along Keowee street to soften the view into St.Anne's could be good - could use the match of labor to plant them...

Jim

Re Water in the parks. I believe we only have water in Victorian and the gateway at Fifth and Keowee Streets not in Alice Park or Terry Street Park.

I would love to see some big evergreens along Keowee but not sure what/how many you can get for a couple of thousand?? I also notice that some of the firs that the state planted along the exit ramp last fall look like they are dying. Hope they don't!
Bobbie

BobbieP said...

Scarlet Said...

Suggestions for the grant money are as follows:

1.) "WATER"


Water to Alice's Garden and any other neighborhood gardens that do not have water.

I would love to see a fountain in Alice's Garden where the green space is - especially on the tree stump that is there, it would be beautiful. Fountains also drown out road noise and unwanted sounds - they are so soothing.

What would be ideal would be a small decorative pond where the green space is with lots of beautiful flowers, what a plus that would be for St. Anne's Hill.

And, of course, it would be much easier to water the gardens.

2.) "WROUGHT IRON"

A wrought iron border surrounding the traffic circles - a low, maybe 18" high would add a lot to the beauty of St. Anne's and could also be a safety feature to protect the circles.

A wrought iron arbor that stretches across the entrance to St. Anne's Hill - say on High Street, or the McClure Street bridge, or Dutoit Street. One similar to the one at the corner of Keowee and Fifth - but on a much smaller scale.

Wrought iron gates (not locked gates) at the gardens - I met with Dave Palmer - the metal artist from the Art & Garden Tour on Monday, July 7 at Alice's Garden to get an estimate on 2 gates, and a matching fence (he says he can match the wrought iron fence already up) to enclose the Josie Street entrance where the green space is. Dave makes a beautiful Victorian wrought iron gate, and he is reasonable - especially for St. Anne's Hill Historicial Society. .

We have so much beautiful wrought iron in the neighborhood, and this would add to the beauty of the gardens and neighborhood.

3.) " DECORATIVE LIGHTING"

Decorative lighting for the gardens - such as the 3-light street light stuctures I have in my front and back yard. It is amazing how much light we get from these, and they are inexpensive, or relatively so. A concrete slab has to be poured for each one, and then underground cable to the electrical box has to be put in. But this may not be possible with no electricity to Alice's Garden - I don't know about Victorian Park.

Decorative lighting of any kind in gardens always adds so much ambience and appeal to the landscape. Spotlights on different sections of the gardens to highlight the flowers and plants would be georgeous.

4.) SIGNS

Large, beautiful signs for the gardens that go something like this:


Alice's Garden or Victorian Garden

"PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF DAYTON &
ST. ANNE'S HILL"

Privately Owned & Maintained by the St.Anne's Hill Historic Society
Please Help Us Keep Our Neighborhood Beautiful


These are just suggestions, hope this helps.
Scarlett Ellis

Maureen Barry said...

A few neighbors and I were chatting tonight about this grant money and came up with an idea. It would be great if we could create a small neighborhood dog park. We could use a vacant lot - (Josie and High St.??) - and make better use of it. So many people in this neighborhood have dogs - this would give them a safe place to play together (and goodness knows none of our backyards are big enough to host a dog party:).
We could use the money to buy the lot and purchase fencing. It would help beautify the neighborhood!

Maureen Barry said...

A few neighbors and I were chatting tonight - we think a dog park would be a great addition to St. Anne's. We could help beautify the neighborhood by making good use of an unused lot (perhaps the corner of High and Josie?! - just a thought!), while keeping all of our dogs safe while they play. Goodness knows none of us have a backyard big enough for many of them to play together.
Maureen Barry
624 McLain Street

BobbieP said...

I love the dog park idea! If the grant money was enough, we could even set it up as an agility course similiar to the one at the Benchwood Exit. It would be the right size. That way the neighborhood dogs could do something other than just visit as it really wouldn't be big enough for all-out running.

Susie Wheeler left a message on my vm suggesting this same idea last night! I would be willing to explore the costs of accomplishing this and perhaps write the grant also or help write the grant.

Original Jim & Pat said...

I'm a new dog owner; however I don't care for the dog park idea. The comment about cleaning and maintenance of the project is significant. I would hope that those who would use it, would also maintain it. Sadly, though, from my daily walks and/or jogs with my dog, I have regularly noticed folks who neither control their dog nor pick up after them. Also, I wonder if there would be any liability issues -- what happens if a dog bites another dog or a person? I wouldn't want the "mini dog park" near my home nor I wonder who would -- for both the potential incessant barking and intensified aroma on nice humid days.

A lot of good ideas have been brought forth and this is a good forum to identify pros and cons, express concerns and share experiences relevant to any matter that will affect the entire neighborhood.

Patricia Latham

Maureen Barry said...

Your concerns about the dog park are valid. However, I envision a committee that would care for the park. We would rotate volunteers to mow it often. Also, anytime I take my dog there - which would be EVERY DAY it isn't raining or snowing - I would clean up while I am there. I don't want my dog rolling around in whatever, so I (and I'm sure some other dog owners) would take some time to clean up while my dog is running around in her safe, fenced-in park.

As far as the idea of a dog park being on 5th Street - I agree that improving 5th Street is in all of our best interest's...but I'm not sure that's the best place for the dog park. My pup is a bit skiddish on 5th Street with all the loud cars, buses and trucks that zoom right by her.

Just some food for thought on the idea.

BobbieP said...

Susan Jelus said...

Good brainstorming!

Historic lighting sure would improve 5th St, which is the most visible part of our neighborhood. We could start a fund toward that goal, as Rosemary suggests. But I'm not sure we could use this grant for that fund. rasing that much money would probably take a while. The city has said that the project needs to be completed by August 2009.

This touches on something else we should think about. To get the money, our ideas need to reflect the goals of the organization making the grant. So we need to propose something that will make Dayton (or our little corner of it) more beautiful, safer, more liveable, or something that fits with another established goal. The city hasn't given us any specific information about the goals of this program or the application process yet. We should get that later this month.

That said, we don't need to stop with this $2000 grant application. We might be able to tap into other resources: The Ohio Arts Counsel, The Ohio Historical Society, local companies and foundations, others organizations we don't know about yet, and the amazing power of so many of us working toward a common goal (just look at the money we've been able to raise with the Christmas tour!).

Regards,

Susan Jelus
Treasurer