Awards Dinner - NPI

At the November 8th Awards Dinner, Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (NPI) was recognized as the "Neighborhood Partner of the Year".

NPI was recongized for a number of reasons. Over the last decade, NPI has provided Northeast Shores crucial operating support to support our operations. This operating support has remained constant over the decade, which allows us to plan for the future with comfort that large shocks to our budget will not occur.

In addition, many residents in the neighborhood are familiar with the recently completed Waterloo Streetscape Plan. This plan was primarily funded with a TLCI grant from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA). NOACA requires a signficant local match for this program. In the case of the Waterloo Streetscape Plan, NPI stepped up to the plate and provided us the necessary match to proceed with the plan. After a year of insightful meetings with residents and Waterloo business owners, this plan is now in the first steps of implementation.

As the Waterloo Plan reaches completion, we begin our endeavors on the Euclid Beach Fishing Pier Feasibility Study. This study was funded primarily by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Again, a significant local match was necessary to receive the grant and, again, NPI stepped up and funded our local match. This plan is just now starting and we are looking forward to working with URS Consultants to determine if a pier can be reconstructed at Euclid Beach.

Also, NPI has funded a three-year branding strategy for Waterloo Road. We are just starting the initial steps on implementing this strategy with assistance from our consultant, Melanie Hershberger. It is wonderful that NPI has agreed to fund this effort, since increasing regional exposure to our successes on Waterloo is essential to moving the commercial district back from the brink of total blight.

In addition to these funding efforts, the staff of NPI (and their affiliate VCC) have provided countless hours of technical assistance to the staff and board of Northeast Shores. This assistance has greatly helped our efforts and allows us to implement best practices that were proved successful in other Cleveland neighborhoods and nationwide.

(Bobbi Reichtell, Senior Program Officer at NPI, accepted the award on behalf of the organization.)

All of these efforts to improve North Shores Collinwood would not be possible without the support of NPI. We want to thank all of the staff at NPI for their assistance over the years.