NORTHEAST — East Aldine Executive Director David Hawes welcomed the many organizations that work with the District to accomplish its goals, and who also benefit from the work accomplished by the District.
The purpose of this quarterly luncheon was to communicate with these partners and to review the progress in the 10 years of its existence.
Hawes pointed out that the District receives its revenue from a sales tax, and this has grown from about $800,000 the first year, 2001, to $3,600,000 in 2009. Not only has this income been used for community improvement projects, but it has also been leveraged with other agencies to create even more accomplishments with “partnered” monies.
Hawes reviewed progress in each of the categories that occur in the “Service Plan” which guides the work of the District. Each year in January the board meets in a workshop, to review and amend the Service Plan for the next year.
Broad categories of work are as follows:
Water & Sewer Infrastructure
Mobility and Transportation
Parks and Green Spaces
Environmental and Urban Design
Business and Economic Development
Security and Public Safety
Facility Development
In Water & Sewer, Hawes said that even though studies showed the area to need $250 million in long-term improvements, nevertheless the District has underway over $30 million in projects of this type.
Mobility & Transportation includes plans to improve Aldine-Westfield paving and intersections, widening of Aldine-Mail, a bus transit study for new routes, and a study of extending W. Gulf Bank.
Economic Development, Parks & Greenspace, Environmental & Urban Design projects were also reviewed. This included a “signing” project to mark the boundaries of the District.
Hawes noted that a number of scholarships have been endowed with the Aldine Scholarship Foundation for local students, and other projects have funded grants for youth projects, after school activities, and YMCA classes.
The District has drawn praise for its forward thinking in public safety, including the Sheriff’s pro-active unit, bicycle patrols in parks and parking lots, nuisance abatement, and an auto-theft task force.
Hawes said that the District is also in the pre-planning stages for a special central development, a town-center concept that would include many institutional, educational, governmental, and commercial partners.