Explanation
BACKGROUND: The Columbus area Lowe's Home Improvement Stores along with community affairs coordinator Doug Brownfield and the national award-winning Lowe's Heroes program have a strong history of giving back to the Columbus community and a longstanding partnership with Keep Columbus Beautiful. This resolution acknowledges and congratulates the Columbus area Lowe's Home Improvement Stores for the special relationship they maintain with the City of Columbus.
Title
To acknowledge and congratulate the Columbus area Lowe's Home Improvement Stores for the special relationship they maintain with the city of Columbus.
Body
WHEREAS, Mayor Michael B. Coleman stated in his 2012 State of the City address that the Parsons Avenue area is primed for revitalization and the City is seeking champions to step up and support efforts to turn the historic area away from some of the negative forces that plague it so that it can reap the full benefit of the Parsons Avenue Area Vision Plan; and
WHEREAS, the plan includes the extraordinary multi-million-dollar expansion of nationally renowned Nationwide Children's Hospital on the north and the planned 3.2 million dollar investment by the city of Columbus to re-develop the southern portion of the Avenue by 2013; and
WHEREAS, this year, Lowe's made it possible for communities and programs all over the United States to share in a million-dollar grant made to Keep America Beautiful for application by its affiliates; and
WHEREAS, the city's own Department of Public Service, Keep Columbus Beautiful program in concert with Merion Village, the other South Side neighborhoods and the Parsons Avenue Merchants Association applied for and received a Lowe's community improvement grant of $20,000 to expand and support Plant Pride On Parsons, an on-going award-winning community greening project initiated in 2010 involving the addition of flowers, art and shrubs and reducing blight such as litter and graffiti; and
WHEREAS, included in August 2012 was Parsons Avenue storefront face-lifts from Livingston Avenue to State Route 104; and
WHEREAS, 100 Lowes Heroes prepared storefronts for face-lifts, 600 volunteers from Vineyard Churches performed the actual face-lift work, the Columbus Neighborhood Design Center helped Avenue merchants achieve a unified look and color scheme along the corridor, and Keep Columbus beautiful coordinated all of these efforts; and
WHEREAS, this comprehensive effort involving hundreds of volunteers, community and corporate partners and a strong element of sustainability, is a model for neighborhoods throughout Columbus and surrounding areas seeking to bring about positive change; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS
SECTION 1. That this Council commends Lowes, Vineyard Church volunteers, participating merchants and service providers, Keep America Beautiful and Keep Columbus Beautiful for coordinating such a massive community improvement project that disproves the idea that struggling neighborhoods are powerless to bring about meaningful change.
SECTION 2. That this resolution shall take effect and be in force from and after the earliest period allowed by law.