Highland Ridge group expanding
Highland Ridge Community Development Corp. wants to use the lessons the group learned from its Elm Street revitalization program to help other neighborhoods in Washington.
Fred Fleet, the group’s president, said they’re launching their own program called “Mending Fences” they hope will be able to do more for the city as they expand to other neighborhoods in need.
“The whole idea was to make the area look a lot better, but it was very concentrated in the Highland Ridge area. We had to stay there,” Fleet said. “We decided to expand our boundaries to the entire city of Washington because we feel there is a need for the rest of the city.”
The state’s Elm Street grant, which gave the group $100,000 annually over the past five years and helped them to make facade or other exterior improvements, expired in 2013. Fleet said their new project will begin in June and give them more flexibility to mobilize across the city.
He hopes the program, which is garnering outside donations as it builds its fundraising foundation, will focus on one street to fix each house or blighted spot on the block. The first project will concentrate on a block of Locust Avenue from Highland to East Hallam avenues. The focus will be on helping people who are low-income, elderly, disabled or veterans with upgrades inside and outside of their homes.
Some changes could include installing public art in vacant lots. Other improvements that might not be as obvious could be as simple as repairing a roof, addressing safety issues or fixing a home’s stairs.
“It might be something you don’t see, but it’s very important to them,” Fleet said. “We are able to make a bigger impact on the individual person and individual homeowner than we were with the state grant. Not to say we will turn down any state money, but it gives us more versatility.”
The board for Highland Ridge’s group, which was founded in 2001, voted last year to amend the bylaws to allow it to move beyond its current neighborhood.
Washington Mayor Brenda Davis said this new initiative should become a rallying call to various community leaders who want to work together to improve other city neighborhoods. She pledged the city government’s support to help the group secure grant funding or find other fundraising sources.
“For them to expand citywide, it’s a wonderful thing because it helps strengthen the community,” Davis said. “It helps build the neighborhood back up to what it was many, many years ago. To focus on one block and build off of that, it will just help the city grow.”
Fleet said the expansion is reminiscent of what his father, Fred, did after he helped found the group’s namesake, the Highland-Erie Association, in the early 1980s. He said his father, who died last year, would work to help any city neighborhood in need and even spurred projects as far away as Prosperity.
“We’re not organized to go quite that far, but want to do something across the city,” Fleet said.
Fleet said their ultimate goal is to eliminate blight, reduce crime and gets both kids and their parents involved with the projects.
The group is working with the city, Washington School District, Southwest Training Services and various other groups to get the community involved and find volunteers.
People who want to volunteer, donate money or get involved in another way can call Highland Ridge Community Development Corp. at 724-678-4225 or go to the group’s Facebook page.