Smith Hill News April, 2010
|
|
|
|
Smith Hill Community Development Corporation and our community partners have a lot of great news to report as well as many events coming soon. From Earth Day Celebrations and clean-up efforts, to tree plantings, a flourishing community garden and the quickly approaching weekly Farmers' Market, our neighborhood continues to be a hub a positive activity.
We hope to have an announcement soon about a truly transformative construction project set to begin later this spring!
Remarkable things continue to happen on Smith Hill and the future promises to be even better. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to get involved in any of these activities or with any of your community ideas, concerns or issues.
|
|
|
Community News & Events
|
|
St.
Patrick's School Float in the St. Patrick's Day Parade
Citizens Police Academy
District 5, Lieutenant Daniel Gannon, is conducting Providence's
first-ever Citizens Police Academy
here in Smith Hill beginning in late April.
The academy is free and available to anyone. It is a nine week course that meets weekly for two hours. There will be many guest speakers,
interactive exercises and ride-alongs with on-duty officers.
This is an excellent opportunity for community residents to get to know the police on a personal level and
Earth Day Clean Up
Smith Hill CDC is proud once again to be joining Providence College, Elmhurst Clean & Green and The Smith Hill Library Friends Group to celebrate Earth Day with the annual beautification event on
Saturday, April 24th.
Projects will include cleaning up sections of Smith St., Oakland, Chalkstone,
Convent, Candace, Bernon and Goddard streets, priming the concession stand at Davis Park and hopefully
planting a few trees, shrubs and flowers in various locations.
Approximate times are from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm, but any time that you can
commit would be greatly appreciated. All volunteers will meet at Davis Park between 9 - 10 am where they will get a chance to choose between a wide range of activities. We also need team leaders. If you are interested, please email here.
Trash Receptacle Improvement Along Smith Street
 You may have noticed that many of the Steel Yard produced trash receptacles disappeared for a night last week and returned the next morning on new cement pads and fully restored. These
original works of functioning art are over four years old and were in
great need to repair due to the ravages of both time and snow plows. The re-installation on floating cement pads is designed to allow some degree of mobility which should help them better absorb some of the aforementioned perils of city life.
This restoration work is thanks to Councilman Hassett, the City of Providence and our great community partners, The Steel Yard. Smith Hill CDC acted as the administrators of this project in a pro bono capacity.
Don't forget that these receptacles are ours as a community, so please help us to keep them clean and functioning. If you see a lid on the ground or hanging open, by all means feel free to put it back in place. Also, if you would like to to adapt a receptacle, we would be happy to furnish you with the appropriate cleaning and maintenance materials.
Davis Park Farmers' Market
Elmhurst Clean & Green is again spearheading the Davis Park Farmers' Market. This year the market will expand in many ways.
It will run on Sundays July 11 to October 31, from 11:00am until 2:00 pm.
Once a month there will be a 'Family Fun Day', with the first slated for Sunday
July 11 that will include music and activities for children. Local vendors are still needed and are encouraged to become involved. Volunteers are also welcome. Anyone interested can contact Elmhurst Clean & Green.
HousEART Update
In the last newsletter, we reported that Smith Hill artist and HousEART alum, Lydia Stein, received a grant from the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts to take HousEART city-wide. We are delighted to add that several other Providence CDC's have signed on to this project, which will provide stipends to artists and youth team members to work on five separate projects across the city. We will provide continuing details on this Smith Hill-born project in subsequent newsletters. Congratulations Lydia!
|
|
Home Ownership Opportunities
|
|
Smith Hill CDC is working on several rehabilitation projects aimed at affordable home ownership in the neighborhood. Please join us at an open house for these two properties at Capitol Square on Saturday April 17 from 11-2.
41 Pekin St.
Rehabilitation of 41 Pekin St. is moving along and on pace to be completed by mid-May. This home will feature a townhouse style, four-bedroom, one and half bath unit and a two-bedroom rental unit. Priced at $135,000 the rental unit would cover a large portion of the monthly bills.
Capitol Square at Smith Hill
Capitol Square condominium units are back on the market and we are pleased to report that in a little over a month of hitting the market, we already have two units sold and three more under contract! These three-bedroom, new construction condos are priced at $119,000, and the City of Providence and Rhode Island Housing are both offering generous down payment assistance programs.
We are also marketing the commercial units aggressively and are hoping to have them all filled by the summer with businesses that will add value to our neighborhood.
|
|
Library News
|
|
|
Smith Hill Library and the PCL
Night at Knight
The Gala Event at Knight Memorial Library, held on Friday March 26th, was a great
success. There were approximately 125 guests celebrating PCL's existence and the
survival and vitality of our local libraries, marveling at the beauty of Knight
Memorial Library, and enjoying each others' company.
The PCL raised nearly $30,000, which is a pretty amazing amount for an
organization that only 9 months old! The building looked wonderful--thanks to the hard work
of the countless volunteers from the Knight Memorial Friends (and elsewhere) who
helped the maintenance crew prepare the building for
guests. The Providence Community Libraries (all the neighborhood libraries except Central) are in the first year of new management. The new organization is community-based and a truly democratic institution.
Please get involved!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smith Hill Community Development Corporation
47 Goddard St.
Providence, RI
521-0159
www.smithhillcdc.org
|
|
|
|
