City recognizes 'Blooming Neighborhoods' for community improvement

’Tis the season to make Bloomington a better place to live.

That’s why the Housing and Neighborhood Development for the City of Bloomington is sponsoring its 12th “Blooming Neighborhoods” Awards Celebration for local neighborhoods that have demonstrated efforts to form neighborhood communities through programs or projects.

The awards have three categories: the Mayor’s Excellence Award, the City Council Neighborhood Enhancement Award and the HAND Team of the Year Award. In the past, neighborhoods received honorable mentions. Each award winner receives $100 that goes toward the program and project within the association.

Applications are due April 16, and the celebration will start at 10 a.m. June 2 at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market, where neighborhood associations can set up tables to share information with others.

“What we really want to do is recognize the great work our neighborhoods do in Bloomington,” said Vickie Provine, the program manager for HAND. “The city of Bloomington is such a wonderful place to live, and a lot of people are working hard to make the quality of life in the neighborhoods.”

Last year, Blue Ridge Neighborhood Association won the Mayor’s Excellence Award for designing a website that offers information for neighborhood events and a password-protected directory, which replaced the directory that was distributed once a year. 

The website continues to get nearly 50 hits a month, which was a high frequency for a neighborhood of about 200 houses, said Ben Motz, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences who spearheaded the start-up for the website.

Motz said applicants should demonstrate that their project has a positive effect.

“In other words, include some measure of (or some way to measure) the project’s success,” he said in an email. “The city is more impressed with applications that include program evaluation measures than those where the applicant is merely speculating that the project will work.”

Last year, Crescent Bend Neighborhood Association won the City Council Neighborhood Enhancement Award, which is given for projects that have promoted sustainability or improved the neighborhood’s appearance.

Carrie Winkel, chair for the Neighborhood Watch Committee, said the association applied at the behest of Provine but also because the association had “overcome some major hurdles and had actively sought to enhance our neighborhood, not just in appearance.”

Two artisans from the neighborhood helped build a neighborhood welcome sign.

The neighborhood also had a clean-up day last year and picked up road trash from West 17th to North Monroe streets and North Crescent Road to West Vernal Pike.

“I believe that we were awarded for our continued efforts to improve our neighborhood by acquiring our unique sign, instigating a neighborhood watch, by trying to keep up with unsightly street trash and by always keeping safety a top priority,” Winkel said.

Near West Side Neighborhood Association won for reforming the association by electing new members and for planting trees and adding public gardening, said Veda Stanfield, who was the association’s president when they won the award.

Provine said the celebration at the Farmers’ Market is a good way for neighborhoods to share ideas about community projects.

“The main thing we’re wanting to do is help share information from those people who are doing all the work to make it happen,” she said.