Hoping to enhance the cityscape, Troy’s City Council has opened applications for this year’s Neighborhood Improvement Program.
Projects through the program are meant to brighten public spaces through art, signage, park maintenance, and plantings. Councilors say through volunteer projects, the city will become more attractive to current and prospective residents and businesses.
Council President Sue Steele says applications are evaluated on several points, including impact on neighborhoods. Steele says groups are encouraged to use supplies from local businesses in the city or Rensselaer County.
“What will be visible? What brings the neighborhood together,” Steele said. “There are three of us who review every application and then make recommendations to the full council for funding.”
In order to receive the maximum award of $1,500, applicants are asked to provide a brief description of their project, future maintenance plans, a timeline, an itemized budget, and a list of volunteers.
Steele, a Democrat, says recipients can apply to continue their work annually.
“It might be something that had been done similarly the year before,” Steele said. “I mentioned that some neighborhood groups have purchased planters and each year put in an application for the actual plantings that would go in the planters. So, it would be a project that might have been done in the past and it would be doing it again this year.”
Kristen Holler, the Executive Director at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, led a new project in North Central last year to create dog waste stations and informational signage. The group was approved for $1,300. Holler says while it was a bit challenging to find vendors within the county who could work with the city’s purchase order system, the city clerk was helpful in navigating her through the process.
“This was just a simple thing that we could do as neighbors to bring a resource to the neighborhood that everybody could benefit from.”
Council President Pro Tem. Thomas Casey from District 6 says the program is for everyone.
“It's mostly used by neighborhood groups, people who are really invested in Troy in their neighborhoods and try to make their neighborhoods better. And these grants kind of give them a helping hand. So, they feel there's some resources to help them spruce up their neighborhoods, many neighborhoods do planters with flowers and signage for their different neighborhoods, Stow Avenue, Osgood [neighborhood] is planning to do some banners, so that there's an identity to their neighborhood.”
Republican Mayor Carmella Mantello, the council’s previous president, says her administration is working to supplement the council’s programs.
“We plan now as mayor to come out with a similar neighborhood program where folks from Troy can tap into even more dollars to dovetail what the council does,” Mantello said. “So, these projects, the Neighborhood Improvement Program, we brought to a new level, I'm very, very proud of where we took it the past eight years and I anticipate they'll continue building on this success.”
Applications close March 29th.