CUYAHOGA FALLS: Mayor Don Walters envisions a city where neighborhood ambassadors will let the elderly lady on a fixed income next door know she’s entitled to free snowplowing.
A city where they might mention to the teenager selling video games on Craigslist that City Hall has been designated a safe zone for making the exchange.
Where they know the local police would be willing to routinely check on a homebound neighbor who has no family in town.
Maybe these ambassadors would go as far as organizing a block party or starting a community garden where a neighbor has some land to spare.
But it would also be fine if they would simply welcome a new family to the block with a plate of brownies.
Calling his vision the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative, Walters and other city officials held the first two ward meetings this week to offer ideas for strengthening community bonds.
It’s something that has been simmering on Walters’ back burner ever since he was elected mayor three years ago. An active constituent called him to say, “I want to be the mayor of Bailey Road!” Walters, in response, happily declared: “You are! You are the mayor of Bailey Road.”
That exchange inspired him to imagine lots of mini mayors, all eager to communicate news, share programs and organize events in their corners of the city.
Growing up on Madison Avenue, the 53-year-old Walters recalled a childhood when neighbors “stayed put forever” and created an extended family atmosphere.
If a pipe burst in the middle of the night, homeowners knew where the plumber lived. If the car didn’t start, they knew the mechanic down the street.
If thieves backed a moving truck into a driveway and proceeded to empty a house, police passing by wouldn’t know to stop, but neighbors would know if that activity was out of place, Walters said.
“We can get back to that to some degree,” he told about 50 residents who attended a meeting for wards 3 and 4 on Tuesday.
Today, families tend to be more transient, so building that community feeling takes a little more work.
People who don’t want to be ambassadors were invited to sign up for city email updates. Walters argued that even that little effort would help them pass on knowledge.
At Tuesday’s meeting, as well as at another Wednesday for wards 5 and 8, Walters breezed through a couple dozen residential programs created in recent years, indicating the breadth of information that needs to be circulated.
“These programs are only as good if we can get the word out,” he said.
He touched on the anonymous crime tip line that pays a reward, a program that rewards children with free pizzas and ice cream cones for discussing the danger of drugs with business owners and the mayor’s youth advisory council that seeks policy input from high school students.
Walters explained a neighbor mediation program that uses law students to resolve disputes, appliance rebates to encourage energy efficiency and a house painting program for income-eligible homeowners.
“When you bought your home, you bought more than a house. You bought a neighborhood, a city, a police department, a fire department,” Walters said.
After the meeting, Dr. Ghulam and Sara Mir were among the first to sign up.
“We learned a lot tonight. A lot,” stressed Ghulam Mir, who moved to Cuyahoga Falls in 2002. As president of the Scenic Valley Reserves Neighborhood Association, he was already sold on the benefits of building relationships.
And being 1974 immigrants from Kashmir and members of the Islamic Community Center, the Mirs say there is no substitute for understanding people of different backgrounds and faiths than hanging out with diverse neighbors.
“As a member of a minority community, it’s our responsibility to reach out,” he said. “This community is beautiful and they welcomed us. We love it here.”
Denise Horning also put a check mark on a sheet that asked if she wanted to be an ambassador. She works for a local attorney, but said it doesn’t take a lot of effort to read an email update and share that information with neighbors.
A recent conversation with an elderly client reminded her of the importance of being aware of “snowbirds” who leave their homes during the winter, and how she feels better knowing neighbors would also keep an eye on her property if she went on vacation.
“Everyone in my neighborhood seems to get along,” she said, but a more conscious and organized effort to be a community “certainly is a good thing. I think this is great.”
There are two more forums scheduled:
• Wards 6 and 7 will meet at 6 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Lincoln Elementary gymnasium, 3131 Bailey Road.
• Wards 1 and 2 will meet at 6 p.m. Dec. 14 at Quirk Cultural Center, Room 207, 1201 Grant Ave.
For more information, visit cityofcf.com/ NeighborhoodExcellence or write Megan Moreland at neighborhoodexcellence@cityofcf.com.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.