Lodi improvement group talks about plans and goals
Their efforts aren’t often touted, but the members of the Lodi Improvement Committee keep working to make the city a better place.
On Wednesday night, the committee met to discuss current goals, the accomplishments of the past year and plans for the future.
According to Joseph Wood, Lodi’s neighborhood services manager, the committee has focused on locations needing improvement as well as general issues facing the community.
Several years ago, the committee tackled improvements to Main Street in Downtown by encouraging property owners to get involved with beautification projects, Wood said. The plan called for enhanced police presence and code enforcement at blighted and crime-ridden properties that negatively affect the community.
“Their goals have been focused on things that are kind of geared towards providing betterment,” Wood said. “They have focused for a couple years on the need for improvements on Cherokee Lane and did a survey of where all the sidewalk gaps were all along Cherokee Lane, where there was a need for handicap ramps and curb-cuts.”
The committee presented the survey results to the Public Works Department and during the grant process stressed to the Lodi City Council that they needed funding to go towards making the improvements along Cherokee Lane.
“Originally we were saying the best that you can expect is they’ll do three or four of these a year, and then have it done over a five or six-year period,” Wood said. “Well, Public Works went even further and just had them all put together as one project. We provided the Community Development Block Grant funds for it, and they did it in one shot. So it was major accomplishment on behalf of the committee to push that issue and see that was done.”
Alley drainage improvements is another key issue that the committee has been working to address, Wood said.
“Many of the issues that were coming in front of the Improvement Committee and complaints from residents were the conditions of the alleys,” Wood said. “This is an issue that goes back all the way to when Council member (JoAnne) Mounce was on what was then called the Eastside Improvement Committee, and so she helped champion that as well. The improvement committee has kind of kept the pressure on, not letting this fall to a lower priority.”
The committee is also looking into drawing more attention towards the need of affordable housing in the community.
According to Wood, the committee has also developed a community service award program that allows them to provide recognition to property owners and residents who have gone above and beyond in improving a property which adds a drastic improvement to a neighborhood.