WALNUT HILLS ANNUAL EASTER EGG HUNT

WALNUT HILLS ANNUAL EASTER EGG HUNT
And BREAKFAST
Saturday April 15, 2006
WALNUT HILLS PARK
Breakfast served in the shelter from 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM
Easter Egg Hunt begins at NOON

Hey everybody, it's that time of year when those bunnies lay those funny colored eggs and leave them in our neighborhood park! We invite the local children to search for them. The Church on the Rock is providing breakfast. This is a FREE event! A great time for everyone! We need 5 volunteers to help hide eggs and supervise, please contact Ella at (937) 256-3855 after 1:30 PM

Egg hunt is limited to children ages 0 through 12 only
and will begin at noon.
Meet at sidewalk beside the tennis courts for egg hunt

Plans for Park Program

Exciting plans are definitely in the works for a 2006 Summer Park program. The details are being ironed out, but there should be daily activities Monday through Friday and lunches provided for the children. T-Ball may become a reality in our park. Also, we may try to initiate a weekly activity for those parents that home-school their children. However, we need volunteers to help out with the events. Volunteers will be thoroughly screened to ensure that our children are protected. If you are interested in volunteering with the activities at the park this summer, please call Theresa Wendell, the executive director for the YMCA Neighborhood Development Center at the East End Community Center at 259-1898 or email her at twendell@east-end.org

Meeting the Challenge

The Belmont Chili Cook Off was a success. There were around 40 people at the Lohrey Center to try the offerings. Including two city commissioners, one Mayor, one mayor's assistant and a former commissioner! There was plenty of chili to feed all. Of the 4 entries, three were from residents of Walnut Hills! Needless to say we placed 1st, 2nd and tied 3rd places. Maybe next year we should have a Walnut Hills Chili Cook Off and challenge Belmont!

Dayton Evaluating Urban Renewal Options for 12-Acre Site

As part of long-term community planning efforts, the City of Dayton is working to consolidate commercial nodes along the business corridors. One area identified as a concentration point is the Wayne Avenue and Wyoming Street intersection.

A recent study concluded that a 12.25-acre area near the Wayne and Wyoming intersection is blighted and has potential redevelopment value. As a result, City officials are moving forward with an urban renewal process that could lead to redeveloping the site for future commercial development.

Pierce Street, Wyoming Avenue, Hawker Street and Wayne Avenue generally bound the targeted area. It contains 86 parcels of property. According to the study, 44 percent of the buildings in the area show major deterioration or are substandard. Only 10 percent of the principal buildings in the study area were found to be sound.

To fully evaluate the redevelopment potential of the area, the City of Dayton intends to seek out interested developers and proposals. From there, an Urban Renewal Plan may be developed, and redevelopment plans will be shared with the community for feedback. The City Commission would ultimately be required to approve a formal Urban Renewal Plan. The entire process could take several months.

What They Sold For!

Here is a list of last year's sheriff sale properties and what they sold for. This information is from the www.mctreas.org web site listing real estate tax information. If there is no deed transfer (NDT) on this web site and the owner has not re-negotiated the lien then it can be assumed that the bank has acquired the property and not changed the deed to avoid responsibility.

1420 Holly Ave. ($32,100) 317 Gunckel Ave. ($37,100)
1134 Arbor Ave (Fannie Mae) 1528-1530 Wyoming ($50,000)
31 Erie Ave. ($16,700) 1517-1519 Wyoming ($40,000)
137 Illinois Ave (NDT) 16 Gebhart St. ($32,000 by bank)
12 Virginia Ave (HUD) 1521-1523 Wyoming ($30,000)
15 Utah Ct (no sale) 1210 Arbor (NDT)
21 Anderson St. ($83,700) 1200 Wyoming ($26,000 by bank)
107 Edgar Ave (NDT) 243 Indiana Ave (NDT)
24 Edgar Ave ($30,000 by bank) 1101 Carlisle Ave(NDT)
1230 Highland Ave ($37,100) 2329 Wyoming (HUD)
1254 Phillips ($40,000) 405 Gunckel Ave ($29,000)
129 Heaton Ave ($30,000) 339 Illinois Ave (NDT)
1325 Arbor Ave, (NDT) 28 Lucerne (NDT)
1146 Carlisle Ave ($51,000 by bank) 1127 Highland Ave(HUD)
1039 Wyoming (VA) 340 Illinois Ave (NDT)
52 Illinois Ave (NDT) 19 Illinois Ave (NDT)
230 Edgar Ave (NDT) 1903 Alice $34,000 by bank)
1034 Walnut Hills Pl.($28,000 by bank) 238 Virginia Ave (Fannie Mae)
51 Missouri Ave ($47,844 by bank) 1808-1810 Wyoming ($61,000)
227 Illinois Ave (HUD) 29 Utah Ct. (NDT)
1314 Creighton Ave (NDT) 2310 Wayne Ave (NDT)
1127 Pritz Ave ($36,000 by bank) 1217 Creighton Ave ($40,100)

13 of the 44 properties (30%) have actually sold and most were to people who own several rental properties. Some reverted to HUD and the VA. The bad news is that 34% of the properties (those marked NDT) will most likely continue to sit vacant for some time.

Chili Cook Off

Belmont-Eastmont-Hearthstone Community Council is having a Chili Cook Off and has invited the Walnut Hills Association to participate. The cook-off will be on Monday, March 20 at 6:30 pm in the multipurpose room at the Lohrey Center located on Glenarm Road in Belmont. It is an open event to discover who makes the "Best" chili. You need to show up with your pot of chili and allow yourself to be judged. With some luck the Dayton Mayor and/or some commissioners will serve as judges, so go easy on the hot sauce!

State of the Community Address

Things are looking up for the Walnut Hills neighborhood. Last year we initiated a playgroup and it has grown from 2 adults and 2 children to 5 adults and 7 children meeting every week at the Colorado Ave Church during the winter and at the Walnut Hills Park in the summer. A network for home-schooling parents was started and will become better established over the course of the coming year. Lela Estes has initiated a 2006 summer parks program for children in our park by working with the Department of Recreations, Twin Towers neighborhood, the YMCA and the East End Community Center. We are also going to have our annual Easter egg hunt in April in conjunction with a breakfast provided by the neighborhood "Church on the Rock.” Plans are in motion to have a neighborhood picnic at the park on the 4th of July. We would like to be able to have movies in the park on weekend evenings in the summer. Members of the fund raising committee are attempting to put together an organized, annual neighborhood-scale yard sale event that may materialize in 2007 in conjunction with a neighborhood-scale open house/garden tour. Now that the ball is in motion, it would be nice if a few more people would step forward to help in these endeavors.