Millville First At It Again

Writing Today's Entry Oct 17

I was at Bogarts yesterday. I took a look at the Atlantic City Press and what to I read, the group against everything (aka Millville First) is now waging its half-truths against the Weed and Seed Program a federally funded program that aims to improve the quality of life in a community through both the use of law enforcement and civic projects.The article states

Of the about the program $824,000has received over the past five years, $412,000, or half, has gone to the police department, the so-called "weed" funding, officials said. That money has funded bike patrols of targeted areas and to help police improve relations with the community.

Only about 10% of the total funding goes to pay for artist salaries. This is the part that Millville First objects to the most. This is in keeping with its intent to damage then destroy the Millville Arts District. The article states that ArtWorks program was targeted by Millvile First and that this program got $30,000. Millville First states more should have been spent on Law Enforcement. Well, this federally funded program is call Weed and Seed. They do not seem to get the fact that the 1. This is not using any city tax money and 2. Its purpose is to Weed out Crime and lay the Seeds for an improved community.
The fact that Millville First is not looking at the expenditures in a fair and objective manner shows its just a political witch-hunt to badger and waste city manpower with OPRA requestes.

"To look at a grant for nine or 10 months out of five years and to say the grant hasn't been a success demonstrates what little analysis they've done and that they already had their conclusion set."
Millville First said it's been studying the Weed and Seed program since February 2009. The group has filed 26 Open Public Records Act requests this year, many of them requesting information on Weed and Seed and Nicklus.
Nicklus said no matter what critics allege, the program has made a difference.
"You can take numbers and you can twist them anyway you want," she said. "I have seen kids who have followed ArtWorks through the years, and it has made a tremendous impact in their lives. That's just a small part of the things we do."

Yes, I would agree of the $824,000 that the grant has given $30,000 is a small slice. I would suggest that Millille First stick to its intent of saving taxpayer money and not going after the Arts District. I mean now there are no events and block partiessince the city had to cut them. Are they not happy with their success in that endeavor??

Related articles

• Senator Aims at DOJ 'Recreational' Grants (legaltimes.typepad.com)
• The Truthiness Behind DOJ's Taxpayer-funded Parties (trueslant.com)

Millville Neighborhood Summit

Yesterday Janurary 31st 2009, the Neighborhood Summit was held at Memorial High School.
It was organized by(AHOME)Affordable Homes of Millville Ecumenical and Millville Weed and Seed Program, with a grant from the Wachovia Foundation. This year's Neighborhood Summit was conducted differently from last year's event in that is was a working conference to hammer our issues affecting the Weed and Seed area of Millvillle.

The five biggest issues were discussed: crime and public safety, neighborhood cleanliness, abandoned and run-down buildings, lack of jobs, and a general absence of friendliness among neighbors.

With a handful of moderators such as Stephen Kehs, vice president of Vineland-based Triad Associates,on site, attendees formed five groups to tackle the five problems, Ideas and solutions were listed and shared by residents and organizers at the summit. Many ideas were given to make the center city a better place to live. After all Center City is the heart of our city!
All in attendence commended the Millville Police Department for the improvement in the neighborhoods. Chief Ed Grennon stated that all officers will receive training in Community Policeing.
This is the third in a series designed to address Center City problems. The second was held on November 13th 2008.

An original Wachovia grant of $90,000 was provided to AHOME for the purpose of finding out the problems. AHOME held a block party and asked residents to complete a survey in August to ask residents about the problems and try to narrow them down; the result was the list of five urgent issues.
Getting the grant requires developing a plan and getting input from as many people as possible Merchants have been contacted, as has the Millville Board of Education. The Summit is one more step to this goal.

Neighborhood Night

The "Neighborhood Night" meeting at the Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts Wednesday consolidated several meetings of local community organizations, including Weed and Seed, Neighborhood Council and the Center City, Third Ward and South Millville neighborhood groups. Each neighborhood group met and had their meetings at the RRCA. This gave the neighborhood groups to meet and enabled city officials to meet community activists from all over the city of Milvile in the same place and time. Topics included Millville Gardens, fundraisers and security at the South Millville highrises.

It was positive evening to start the new year.

Local residents are also planning the 2009 Neighborhood Summit at Millville Memorial High School to address problems in the community. The event will include a few speakers, but residents will spend most of their time meeting in small groups to devise solutions.