Community Development Meeting

No garage sale for me today.  Instead, I started the morning with my long awaited meeting at city hall.  I met with the head of community development for Ashtabula city as well as members from the Lift Bridge Community Association to make a plan to complete three different grants that will improve The Ashtabula Harbor.  Even though I was new to what they were discussing, my previous research from day’s prior helped me follow along pretty well.  One thing that was especially unfamiliar was many of the City and State government codes and requirements.  While there is a lot of bureaucracy involved, some of the complications seemed necessary in order to allow all applicants a fair shot at the available funds.  My job in the next coming weeks (I will be working on this even after project ends) is to speak to harbor business owners about improvements they wish to make on their buildings.  This way, when the grant is submitted, we can demonstrate our community’s need.  In addition, next week I will be working at the community development office of the city to help them gather the information they need for the grant applications.   I really enjoyed the meeting because the group respected me even though I am young and new to their project.  They were eager to give me key role and were very enthusiastic when I volunteered to help them at the office, something more than they had originally planned for me.  If the grants go through, the harbor will be able to make improvements that I would have never imagined possible.  I really want to assist this group in any way I can. Their vision and drive to make the community a better place is impressive.

This afternoon I went down to the harbor to help plant their hanging flower baskets as well as clean the street.  After that work was done I checked in at my mentor’s shop and filled him in on this morning’s meeting which he was unable to attend.