Volunteers Still Needed

South Park is having their Rehabarama event next week and still need some people to assist at some of the houses. Please contact Karen Manovich at kmanovich@usa.net if you can help out.

Count Week October 1-5

This coming week (October 1-5) is Count Week in Dayton Public Schools. It's HUGELY important for kids to be at school this week because school funding is based on attendance records during Count Week. Please help us by getting your children to school. Attendance has been dropping and poor attendance during this week is extremely detrimental to schools. Thank you for your help!

Halloween and the YMCA

At Cleveland PK-8
Neighborhood School Center
You are invited to Join us for

Trunk-or-Treat is a fun and safe way to celebrate a family tradition. Instead of going from house-to-house, families will have the opportunity to go from trunk-to trunk in search of fun treats! We will be using Cleveland Pk-8’s parking lot for all of the participating vehicles. We are currently looking for families, organizations, and business to sponsor a vehicle to decorate and pass out candy. This is a fun event for everyone!

Where: Cleveland PK-8 School

When: Tuesday Oct. 30th
6:00pm-8:00pm
Who: Everyone!!!

If you are interested in sponsoring a vehicle, a game, or treats, please fill the form out below. If you have any questions, or you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact:

Kym Beasley 937-474-2091, KBeasley@dps.k12.oh.us , or you can turn in the bottom portion of this form to Cleveland PK-8 School

______Yes, I am interested in decorating a vehicle and passing
out candy.

______Yes, I am interested donating candy, prizes, or coupons.

______Yes, I am interested in sponsoring a fun game.

______Yes, My family will be attending Trunk-or-Treat.

Include your name and contact information on the back of this form. Please respond by Wednesday October 24th. Thank You!

Spray Park Working

The spray park is up and running in Walnut Hills Park for the next couple of weeks to work out any bugs in the system.

The official grand opening should be next year but in the meantime stop by and have some fun! If you put your hand on the black button at the back of the orange speaker the jets will come on.

$8000 Reward

The Walnut Hills Association voted unanimously to set aside $1000 from our treasury as a reward for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible for the ARSON fire at 260 Indiana Ave on July 16th, 2007.

This raises the total reward to $8000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for this crime.

Call 222-STOP if you have any information regarding this crime.

Wednesday in the Park

The basketball court was being re-surfaced

AND the spray park is so almost done that there is a possibility that it may be open for use in the next two weeks!

More Yard Sale Details

I promised to post this because I think people should be using this site much more than they are doing. I am also trying to make people who are participating in the yard sale this coming weekend realize the true value of this site.
If there is an unusual or specific item that you feel should be promoted, there is nothing to stop you from uploading the URL and sending us a link to your site so that people who visit this web site from the newspaper advertisement can see some of the great items available in our neighborhood yard sale.
That being said, 1418 Phillips Ave will be running their yard sale on Friday and Saturday since they are unable to be available on Sunday.

Unique items at Neighborhood Yard sale Saturday

Hello,
I will be participating in the neighborhood yard sale on Saturday, September 8th only. I will be selling mostly collectible Barbies (I have about 100 all together) in new condition all in their original boxes. I have them priced quite reasonably and you can see some of the pictures of them here, Charity's Barbies for sale. So be sure to stop by my house at 1322 Epworth Ave. to check them out. It's not too early to be thinking about gift ideas and these dolls would make excellent presents!

Yard Sale reminder, Septemeber 8th!

A reminder to all you crazy yard-salers, this year’s fall yard-sale extravaganza is coming up in a little less than two weeks. If you’d like to participate contact Chad at 258-2392 or Gary at 253-1359 to sign up or get details. The official date is Saturday, September 8th.

You can find more details or sign up digitally here, or check out the map here.
Don’t miss out!

Property Tax Savings Deadline: October 1

Homeowners 65 years of age and older or who are disabled are eligible for a property tax reduction under the Homestead Reduction Program. Applications must be submitted by October 1. Get more information from the office of the Montgomery County Auditor.

Foreclosure Assistance is Available

Dayton City Commissioner Dean Lovelace urges Dayton residents who may be the victim of predatory mortgage lending to seek help through various community agencies. Dayton ranked 16th among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States for home foreclosures during the first half of 2007. Many of these foreclosures can be attributed to predatory lending practices.


"Predatory lending continues to be a serious issue, not just in Dayton, but across the country," Commissioner Lovelace said. "I urge anyone who is in danger of losing their mortgage to contact one of the agencies below for help and advice."


· Montgomery County Recorder's Office - 225-4275
· CountyCorp - 225-6328
· Home Ownership Center of Greater Dayton - 853-1600
· Homeownership Preservation Foundation - 888-995-HOPE
· Ohio Housing Finance Agency - 888-362-6432

Kroger Development Public Meeting

Please join city staff at their next public meeting where they will provide more detailed information on the status of the Wayne and Wyoming development project and listen to your concerns.

Tuesday September 4th, 2007 at 6:30 PM
Fish Gate Community Church
424 Hickory Street
Historic South Park

Residents, Please Pay Attention & Be Aware!

At around 11:30 PM last night, there was a suspicious fire at the apartment complex near the corner of Illinois & Wayne. 5 of the units were completely destroyed & a number of residents went to Miami Valley with smoke inhalation.
This is the third suspicious fire in our neighborhood in the last two months.
Below you will see reports from the Dayton Daily News & WHIO-TV, as well as a link to pictures of the fire. Please check them out & Please, everyone, let's be more concerned & diligent about the safety of OUR Neighborhood & it's residents.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/mediahub/media/slideshow/index.jsp?tId=30958

Dayton Daily News
Fire breaks out in Dayton apartment building
By Ryan Justin Fox
Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2007

DAYTON — Firefighters are battling a fire in an apartment building in the 2300 block of Wayne Avenue.

About 11:47 p.m., police and fire radio communication voice traffic indicated that some of the people believed to live in the building have not been accounted for.
Extra firefighting equipment has been dispatched to the scene, according to the radio voice traffic.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2263 or rfox@DaytonDailyNews.com.

WHIO-TV
Suspicious Fire Breaks Out In Dayton

Fire crews were called to the 2300 block of Wayne Avenue on an apartment building fire after 11 p.m. Friday.
Fire crews said heavy fire and smoke filled both ends of the building and some residents were trapped inside when the flames broke out. Several residents were taken to the hospital because of smoke inhalation.
Investigators said they are not sure what caused the fire, but are calling it suspicious.
stephanie.dutton@whiotv.com

Please, if anyone saw or heard anything out of the ordinary in the part of Walnut Hills last night, aroung 11PM, contact Dayton PD at 333-COPS. This is our neighborhood & it is up to us to keep it a safe place to live!

SID Service Plan

If you click the link on the left, you can view the most recent draft of the Special Improvement District service plan. Please feel free to comment in the comments section of this post.

Spray Park Update

This was taken last week but you can see for yourself!

Wanted For Stupidity

If you know the whereabouts of the "937 Boyz" please let us know. They have some cleaning up to do.

No Really. What About That Kroger Development?

There has been a flurry of activity regarding the Kroger development at Wayne and Wyoming Avenues in the last two weeks. Without boring everyone with details a group of neighborhood leaders met to discuss ideas that would push this project along. A letter was written and sent to the city leaders with some questions and ideas. The letter asked if the city had been in communication with Kroger directly instead of their developer Midland Atlantic. We felt that it was important that Kroger was aware of the support that they would have in the community. Letters have been sent by neighborhoods to the CEO of Kroger and an appeal went out for others to follow suit. The response from the city manager was swift and is as follows;

Dear Concerned Citizens:

I want to take the time to thank you for your interest in the redevelopment of property at the Wayne and Wyoming intersection. We share your interest in moving this project forward and are committed to bring new investment to East Dayton. City staff have been working with the Midland Atlantic development group to bring in a new development opportunity that will provide an important amenity and job generator to the neighborhood. Those discussions continue, but there are some critical issues that we are still working through.

The biggest challenge is the amount of public investment that is appropriate for a development of this size and nature, particularly in a city that is facing significant funding challenges. While financial assistance may be appropriate and some funding has been preliminarily committed to facilitate this new development, the City has limited resources. As you are aware, property acquisition costs are a significant concern given prior negotiations that homeowners and businesses had with Midland Atlantic. The City and Midland Atlantic have both worked to identify additional funding sources for the project, but we are still trying to address a funding gap that has grown threefold since the project was first proposed.

Some people have expressed concern that the reason this project is not moving forward is due to the Ballpark Village project. I can assure you that the two projects are unrelated and that Krogers is not contemplated for Ballpark Village.

I also want to assure you that this project is a priority for the City Commission and staff is working diligently to bring this project to fruition. Funding sources, such as tax increment financing, have been part of the project for quite some time and we continue to look for other alternatives.

Our immediate next step is for me and my staff to meet with the Developer to discuss project financing and refine our strategic acquisition plan in an effort to move the project forward. We certainly want to include the citizens and other stakeholders as the development evolves. As soon as we get a firm and workable financing and acquisition plan in place, we will come to the community and provide updates to and solicit feedback from our stakeholders.

I appreciate your commitment and continued interest in our community.

Sincerely,


Rashad M. Young
City Manager

I will keep you posted as I get information.

Little Lambs Private Daycare

Little Lambs Private Daycare

269 Virginia Ave.

Dayton, OH 45410

Open House

August 1, 2007

4p-6p

Normal Business Hours

Monday-Friday

7a-6p

Open for Business

August 6, 2007

Owner and Director: Blythe Williams

Phone # 937.305.0957

Neighborhood Security

Security and quality of life issues are our responsibility. By our, I mean the residents of this community. If we fail to live responsibly then we shouldn't complain when others around us act irresponsibly. In the past, law enforcements motto was "to protect and serve" but this is no longer the case. Law enforcement should be there to enforce the law. This doesn't seem to be the case any more either. It seems that our police force reacts to crimes in progress or after the fact and is forced to focus on felony crimes that a jury will convict. If this is the case then WE have to become responsible for "Crime Prevention" in our neighborhood.
Walnut Hills is not a high crime area when it comes to quality of life issues. Most police calls are domestic disputes or petty thefts and vandalism. Petty crime however should be curbed because it can cause good residents to move away because they feel that nothing can be done to prevent it.
The problem is that we still expect the police force to "protect and serve" at a time when their job is to arrest criminals. They can't arrest criminals in Walnut Hills if we actively make an effort to prevent crime. If we can prevent crimes from occurring then the criminal element will reside and do their deeds elsewhere.
We are going to make an effort to form active and organised block watch groups. Blythe Williams has volunteered to spearhead this effort and can be contacted at blythewilliams@earthlink.net

A tentative plan is to divide the neighborhood into at least 7 sectors as follows. Section #7 may need to be divided into two managable areas.



We would hope to find one responsible person per block to be block captains and one of those captains should be a sector leader. People can report anything unusual to the block captains who can convey relevant information to the sector leader who could broadcast to the neighborhood via this web page or through email.
We don't expect miracles overnight and some sectors will exhibit more volunteerism than others, but it is a start. A block watch group is only as good as it's best leader. If we only establish this in 4 sectors then at least half the neighborhood is a safer place to live in.

We need to locate block captains and sector leaders so if you know the name of the most likely candidate on your block, please submit the name to Blythe. We won't take just anybody. I tend to do criminal and civil record searches on individuals on a regular basis. We may also consider a residency requirement for captains and sector leaders to ensure longevity of the block watch group.

In the last two years we have done a lot of exciting things and this is just one more to make this a more tightly knitted community.. The ultimate goal here is to make Walnut Hills the most desirable neighborhood to live in within 2 miles of downtown Dayton. I think that is an achievable goal.

Another Park Event

I received an email from the Teens of Promise Youth Ministry announcing this event for Saturday July 28th at the park.

PRESENTING
Celebrate Jesus!
A FREE Neighborhood Community Event

Celebrating the Lord Jesus Christ and His Love for Us!
WHEN: Saturday, July 28, 2007
From 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM
WHERE: Walnut Hills Park
FOOD MUSIC FUN
Entertainment
Skits
Puppets
Illusions
Trinkets