Rockmart’s focusing on three areas for GICH
Rethink Rockmart is moving forward with several plans at once following their latest gathering, with initiatives to address everything from code enforcement and ordinance updates to community involvement.
Rockmart's Georgia Initiative for Community Housing committee is breaking up the work among three committees as the head of the campaign council member Sherman Ross directed the latest meeting on Oct. 27.
"After our retreat, we decided to split up the work among committees so that no one person would be burned out doing all the work," Ross said.
Those three areas: code enforcement, community engagement and Habitat, and grants and land bank
Among the areas that Rockmart is working to address is better enforcement and education of city residents on code violations either inside or outside of their properties.
The committee wil also work toward making recommendations on what changes need to be made to city ordinances to keep up with surrounding areas.
"We want to prepare an informative brochure outlining code enforcement procedures," said Cathy Matthews, committee chair.
Matthews said the committee also wants to look at ordinance changes, like how the city could control what people keep on their front porches, modeling what others have done in Georgia to reduce blight issues within a city.
"It's good to have an updated document, to be able to revise it to meet the needs of the time and before it becomes outdated," said Ross. "We're always running into new problems that are not covered under current code. And how do you deal with those if you don't have anything in place within the ordinance, because it's too outdated?"
In order to get any work done, Rockmart officials will also have to get the community involved in the improvement process. This will be the job of Maryann Brock's community engagement committee, who will go door to door if necessary to find block captains and volunteers willing to help out.
The committee is also working to put together a brochure about the Rethink Rockmart program to distribute throughout the city lim- its.
"We want to identify areas in a neighborhood that may need a project, and get people in that neighborhood involved in the process," she said.
She said going out into the community and hearing concerns from neighbors individually might work better than trying to engage people through traditional media, since they are more likely to become involved instead of the same group of people who help all the time.
"We need way more people than that to get the work done," she said.
An immediate project that will need attention is the playground at the Nathan Dean Sports Complex, which Rockmart officials closed off in late October due to safety concerns for children playing on the equipment.
Brock said the equipment hasn’t been updated since the 1990s, and that this could be one of many improvements that could be worked on with volunteer help and donations.
Organized partners are needed too for the needed improvements to Rockmart neighborhoods, which is why the Habitat for Humanity is also getting involved with Rockmart's GICH program.
They'll first be involved based on the organizing work for their "A Brush with Kindness" program, but that isn't all. If Rockmart can get together with the county and their third committee concerning grants and land banks, then new housing opportunities might be possible as well.
If a land bank can be established, Rockmart could feasably tear down blighted properties then turn around and offer the properties to Habitat to build new houses for those who are willing to put in the sweat equity.
"We're planting seeds right now with the county to get one implement- ed," Ross said. "It's a process that has to be initiated by the county and then the city can come and utilize the land bank within the county."
The city isn't waiting around to get what they need to complete the work however. They're hoping to finish up a grant proposal and have it submitted by the end of November for a CHIPS grant of $300,000, and are already looking into the process of how to get more than just a portion of a Community Development Block Grant, but the full $1 million to help with improvement projects.
"We're going to have our ducks in a row for that grant," Ross said.