This summer, students and staff of Aurora West College Preparatory Academy will build a community and educational garden on unused tennis courts, neighbors in Churchill will renovate a park and add a Little Free Library box and people living in Summerfield Villas no longer have to worry about low-hanging trees damaging their property.
Dozens of neighborhood and school groups will carry out community projects ranging from landscaping and lighting improvements to neighborhood clean-up initiatives and recycling bin installation that each group or homeowners association applied to have funded through Aurora’s restored neighborhood beautification grant program this year.
“We used to have mini-grants about 25 or 30 years ago,” said Margee Cannon, neighborhood liaison coordinator for Aurora. “Neighborhood groups back then were used to having some kind of assistance with matching these kinds of projects, and then during the recession it all went away.
“This isn’t exactly the same program, but once people got wind that the possibility was out there again, they started taking advantage of the opportunity,” she said.
In 2015, City Council approved $60,000 allocated annually and divided equally among the city’s six wards to fund the program’s quasi-revival, now in its second year.
“Competition was fierce this year; we received 34 grant applications, totaling $160,968,” Cannon said. “Available funding totaled $60,000 … and so, clearly, demand well outpaced the supply of funds for this worthwhile program. It’s unbelievable how much this program has grown.”
In all, 21 of those projects received partial or full funding based on their proposals and applications, which were submitted to the city a few months ago.
Tina Covey, president of Eleven-One-Eleven Homeowners Association said that her community’s project to upgrade street lighting and fix damaged underground utilities in a condominium complex on East Alameda Avenue north of the Expo Recreation Center has been overdue for some time.
“I’ve lived here since 2002 … and we just implemented the first ever lighting upgrade on the property from the original incandescent globe lights to LED fixtures,” she said. “So we shouldn’t have to worry about maintenance for as many as 10 years.”
The group was awarded half the allocation for Ward 3 — $5,000 — to replace missing or broken lights, fix the property’s entrance sign and also do xeriscaping and plant relocation.
“We’re going to try to involve homeowners as much as possible in the transplanting and planting portion,” Covey said. “There used to be a real sense of community between the original owners here; everybody knew everybody, and everyone helped everyone; and a priority for us is to bring that back. And this project provides an excellent opportunity for that, along with enhancing our property values.”
One of the goals of the grant program, and certainly an advantage for getting projects funded, is its ability to bring neighbors together and strengthen a sense of community.
“We really encouraged that community-building piece,” Cannon said. “Either within the project itself, like people gathering to plant things or remove landscape, or even if it’s having a picnic or barbecue at the completion of the project to celebrate that they pulled together as a community to help beautify their neighborhoods.”
Barbara Randall, president of the Summerfield Villas Homeowners Association, is likely to try to arrange something like that, because the $3,400 awarded for tree removal and maintenance has to be shopped out to a contract company.
“We have about three dead trees and several other low-hanging ones that have become a safety hazard for our residents,” Randall said. “The HOA will pay for part of our project, but the city is really helping us a lot.”
Other awarded projects include $ 5,000 to the in Original Aurora, a $3,500 grant for a new sign at East Middle School, $5,000 for Sixth Avenue Elementary School to design and build a community garden, $1,500 for Heather Gardens residents to add recycling bins to their community center, about $2,000 to enhance the entrance to the Saddle Ridge Golf Course homes and $3,000 for Vista at Meadow Hills to revitalize landscaping.
Groups awarded grants have until Oct. 1 to complete their projects.
“There are about 136 homes in our community, plus we have the RTD bus lines and the new light rail coming in right down the street,” Randall said. “This grant is going to benefit everyone who lives and passes by here. We’re very excited.”