TWDC members celebrate accomplishments
and tackle challenges at annual meeting
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, March 2010) Tremont West Development Corporation (TWDC) celebrated its annual meeting on January 28th with the election of seven new board members and a new board president, award presentations and speeches. The membership voted unanimously to support a TWDC Board resolution opposing the closing of Tremont School. The organization celebrated the cleanup of its membership list through which it successfully achieved a quorum allowing voting to proceed. At last year’s annual meeting and at a membership meeting late in 2009 the organization failed to achieve a quorum.

Despite the quorum, the long awaited vote on the changes in TWDC’s bylaws and articles of incorporation recommended by the organization’s bylaws committee failed to achieve the necessary “yes” votes by two-thirds of the members present and voting. With 151 ballots cast, the proposal to change the articles of incorporation received 80 “yes” votes and 35 “no” votes. The proposal to change the bylaws received 79 “yes” votes and 46 “no” votes. The proposals would have needed at least 101 “yes” votes to pass. Two other proposals to change the bylaws presented by Claude Cornett and Guy Templeton Black also failed.

Board Secretary Chris Alvarado explained to the membership how the membership list was pared down. He said initially there were about 700 people on the list. The effort to create a new membership list started by taking the names of all those individuals who had signed up for any TWDC membership, board or committee meetings during the past year, attended area block club meetings or meetings of affiliated organizations such as Friends of Clark Field. Those individuals, 330 people, were included as members of TWDC. Their names were crosschecked with the original membership list. The remaining individuals on the original list were mailed a post card, which asked them to contact TWDC if they still wished to continue as a member of the organization. About an additional 170 people responded bringing the new membership to about 500 people, said Alvarado.

The membership elected seven people to new 2 year terms on the 15 member TWDC Board of Trustees: Henry Senyak, Josh Zielaskiewicz, Lorraine Thwaite, Tim Jenkins, Lynn Murray, Sarah Lundeen and Kurt Leeper. The membership also chose board member Chris Alvarado as the new President of TWDC’s Board of Trustees.

A number of awards were distributed honoring service to the neighborhood. The Spotlight Award was given to Neighborhood Connections for grants made in the neighborhood to help block clubs and community organizations to make improvements. Artist Dena Depew was named Partner of the year. Matt Grose of the Holmden Buhrer Rowley/Mentor Castle Clark Block Club was named Ward 3 Neighbor of the Year. Georgiann Franko of the Lincoln Heights Scranton Starkweather Block Club and Friends of Clark Field was named Ward 14 Neighbor of the Year. Ricardo Sandoval received the Gail Long Community Service Award for his involvement with the Tremont Business Community and events such as Taste of Tremont and the Tremont Arts Festival. Robert Rodgers, TWDC’s Ward 14 and W. 25th Street Coordinator, was honored as the TWDC staff person of the year.

TWDC Executive Director Chris Garland spoke of the organization’s successes in 2009 and of progress in neighborhood residential developments such as Phase II expansion of Tremont Pointe and the creation of new residential units in the Tremont Place Lofts in the old Union Gospel Press building. Garland noted the Board of Trustees voted in July of 2009 to expand TWDC’s service area to include the business corridor on W. 25th from I-90 to I-71 and Clark Avenue West to Fulton. Garland noted 68 projects in the TWDC service area in 2009, most of which TWDC was in some way involved with. He said new investment in the service area amounted to over $74 million dollars. Garland said TWDC’s involvement in the neighborhood included community development, code enforcement, project management, the model block program and planning for commercial development. Garland noted the emergence of a new business group in the Tremont neighborhood, which will use cutting edge technology to meet and hold discussions via email.

Garland noted neighborhood efforts to improve lighting by gathering information on non-working streetlights, public safety initiatives and efforts to end the brownout of the neighborhood fire station. He noted current efforts to oppose the closure of Tremont School.

Addressing the issue of parking problems that have plagued the rapidly developing Tremont neighborhood, Garland noted the addition of 75 new parking places in 2009 which included new spots on Professor, Jefferson and W. 7th and an agreement to allow use of the Jefferson Library parking lot on evenings and weekends. Garland promised TWDC would help establish more parking places in the upcoming year. He said the goal of the organization is to eventually establish 500 additional parking spots, noting Tremont’s role not only as a fine neighborhood, but also as a regional draw.

Treasurer Lynn Murray reported on improvements that TWDC had made in its capacity to serve as fiscal agent for block clubs and community organizations in the neighborhood. She said TWDC now provides organizations with quarterly statements. Murray noted that auditors were pleased with how TWDC’s books are being kept and the organization with $1.6 million in total assets in 2009 achieved a 14% growth in revenue last year during a recession year.

Ward 14 Councilman Brian Cummins called for more collaboration between development corporations and councilpersons in working across borders as much as possible. He noted especially the necessity of collaboration in addressing the needs of the W. 25th Street Commercial Corridor. Cummins praised participants in Ward 14 block clubs along Scranton Road for their involvement in their neighborhoods saying, “You are in a very good way what democracy looks like.”

Ward 3 Councilman Joe Cimperman noted how neighborhood residents had pulled together to help families, including his own, who lost their homes to fires in Tremont. “Fires in Tremont – we don’t just survive. We thrive,” said Cimperman. He used the analogy of fire to refer to the threatened closing of Tremont School and predicted a successful campaign to keep the school open saying, “we will win.” He urged residents to get involved and pick up packets showing how they can get involved in Saving Tremont School.

Cimperman noted the successful campaign to reopen the neighborhood entrance ramp to the Inner Belt Bridge and previous campaigns to keep Tremont School open as examples on the neighborhood’s strength in the face of adversity.

Cimperman praised the high level of interest and involvement of Tremont residents in Tremont West Development Corporation as evidence by large number of board of trustee candidates including a number of nominations from the floor. Referring to the often contentious bickering in the Tremont neighborhood, Cimperman called it a sign of people being passionate about their neighborhood and he reminded residents “No one loves Tremont more than anyone else. When we fight, one thing we agree about is this is a special place.”

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