Councilman Johnson’s meeting hears needs of North Forest community

More money and services are coming to Northeast Houston thanks to its Super Neighborhoods and residents speaking up. On January 31, City of Houston Councilmember Jarvis Johnson, hosted a public meeting with a regime of more than a dozen City of Houston department heads and officials at Shadydale Elementary in NFISD.
Councilman Johnson led the public meeting stating that it was the community’s turn to let the city know what’s going on in their community and what needed. The main focus of the meeting was to obtain input before preparation of the City’s FY2006 Annual Operating Budget and the FY2006-2010 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The meeting provided an opportunity for citizens to participate in the budget process through contributing concerns, comments, requests and suggestions about needed services and improvements for their area.

Residents lined up to tell about problems needing attention in their communities. One resident mentioned that she has to wade in water to get to her mail box every time it rains. Another resident stated that recently a gas pipe broke under the only street that leads in and out of her Woodglen subdivision and if anything blocks the street during an emergency, the ambulance would not be able to get in and they would not be able get out, so her request was for building an additional street out.
The Presidents of all area Super Neighborhoods representing the 80,000 Northeast residents came forward and provided requests directly to Councilman Johnson and the city officials. Jackie Mayhorn, President of Super Neighborhood 47, provided a laundry list of many requests collected during the year from residents of the community.
Councilman Johnson has helped move the community forward with the Multipurpose Center, a new Tidwell park and with more than 2,500 new homes being built along Little York road, the community is going to need an Overpass to move traffic over the train tracks of Little York and Hirsh road, said Mayhorn. She added that they wanted a quiet zone to stop trains from blowing horns at 3:00 in the morning every night.
Residents took full advantage of the opportunity to meet with the city planners to solve nearby flooding, street lighting, youth centers, upgrade parks along with repairing and widening streets. Councilman Jarvis Johnson and his team of city department heads recorded all concerns of the community stated that the information would be used in budgeting capital improvements for the area.
There is only so much funding available, but loud voices and participation by the citizens of the community is what directs money to build Multipurpose Centers, library renovations, safer better parks, wider streets, reduced flooding and so much more, said Johnson and the community has done that today.