Toledo, OH– Less than 24 hours after the Central City Citizens met with Bill Brennan (Director for Department of Inspection), Kattie Bond (Director for Department of Neighborhoods), Bob Mossing (Manager of Code Enforcement), and Councilwoman Paula Hicks-Hudson a vacant house (812 Indiana Ave.) was being cleaned up by the City of Toledo. That’s right the Central City Citizens have been organizing over the past few months to take on the issue of vacant and abandoned properties in their neighborhoods and the time has come for action.

The Central City Citizens met with over 50 community members on Thursday April 14th 2011 at the Frederick Douglass Center to address their issues. Neighbors from throughout the community were able to attend and voice their concerns and issues. Central City Citizens won the following commitments from the City of Toledo:

1 – Within 7 days, the Departments of Neighborhoods/Inspection committed to giving the group the contact information for the contractor assigned to maintain the grass of all vacant properties in this neighborhood. They will also provide the group with which properties they are assigned to maintain and what will be their cutting schedule.  Finally, they will assign an internal City of Toledo contact for our group.

2 – Bill Brennan committed to having Illegal Dumping signs posted in all Central City Citizens designated key areas (alleys and vacant lots) within the next 10 days.

3 – Bob Mossing agreed to accept all new board up/clean up requests from Central City Citizens and have them processed within the next 10 days. Mossing also committed to having all future requests resolved within 2 business days after they are submitted.

4 – Bob Mossing committed to having the remaining 8 houses from the Central City Citizens demolition list demolished by the fall of 2011. The Central City Citizens are working to continue to push Mossing on specific dates for each demolition.

5 – Bill Brennan, Kattie Bond, and Bob Mossing all committed to returning to the group on a quarterly basis to report progress and updates to the group, in addition to other scheduled meetings.

6 – Kattie Bond, Bill Brennan and Paula Hicks-Hudson committed to partnering/sponsoring with Central City Citiznes to organize a neighborhood tour next month.

7 – Bob Mossing committed to making Central City Citizens and their specific housing requests the priority of Toledo Housing Inspector, Pat Lee.

Join the entire ESOP family in congratulating the Central City Citizens in this major victory!!!

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