Lexington, KY - After months of planning and preparation, interested neighbors in the Glendover Road area, which is west of Tates Creek Road just south of the Arboretum, have formed the Glendover Neighborhood Association, one of Lexington's newest neighborhood organizations.
The group's first president, Tony Hicks, who has lived in the neighborhood for the past seven years, said the association was formed to promote the general welfare of the neighborhood by giving its members a cohesive voice and a venue for civic engagement.
"There are people like myself who were interested in becoming more organized to possibly further efforts in improving our already great neighborhood," Hicks said. "We felt that by organizing ourselves, we would certainly have a stronger voice in the community, and it would also serve as a outlet for people in the immediate area to bring their ideas in front of a group of people who would be able to take action."
The Glendover Neighborhood Association will pertain to roughly 450 residences. The neighborhood's boundaries are loosely defined by Glendover Road to the north, all of Albany Road to the south, Tates Creek Road to the east and Heather Way to the west; it also includes all of Jesselin Drive and the households along the west side of Tates Creek Road between Albany Road and Old Dobbin Road. Membership is open to households as well as renters, and dues for the first year are $20.
Hicks said a group of neighbors first began meeting on a monthly basis in late summer of 2011 with the intent of forming the neighborhood association, working with the Fayette County Neighborhood Council, which represents the 130-plus neighborhood associations in Lexington, and filing the proper paperwork with the city. Part of the requirements for the formal organization was electing officers and forming a board of directors - other officers are vice president Jeremy Gorman; secretaries Ginny Hodgkins and Jessica Ladipo; and treasurer Clarissa Spawn.
Since forming, the association has been trying to make the neighbors aware of the new organization, by word of mouth and passing out fliers at each eligible household. Hicks said the response has been encouraging, despite the new concept for an older, established neighborhood.
"For a lot of these these folks, this is brand new. A lot of them have lived there for the past 50 years and never come across this," Hicks said. "As far as we can tell it's been positive. We have a lot of people who are curious more than anything and want to see what we're all about."
Hicks emphasized that the group is a neighborhood association, not a homeowners association, which can have rules and regulations for properties' appearances.
"We are absolutely not about trying to police the area. We don't want the neighborhood to be in any sort of regulatory program," he said. "Every application will say that on there: we are not forming a homeowners association and it will not become that."
Neighbors are interested also in knowing how money from the annual dues is going to be spent, according to Hicks, adding that the association would like to host social activities in the future and purchase better communicative devices for meetings.
"It absolutely does not go to buying us pizza during our board meetings, we're a very self-sufficient group of folks," Hicks assured. "We want people to know it will be a very transparent system once we get going."
A priority for the organization is achieving a 501(c)4 non-profit status, which would allow the group to collect dues without paying taxes.
Hicks said the new neighborhood association has a number of issues they would like to address, such as cut-through traffic on Albany Road, and programs to consider, such as Safe Routes to School and elderly focused initiatives, but the association wants the neighbors to dictate their agenda.
"We're hoping for a lot of participation. A neighborhood association, at the end of the day, is what the neighborhood makes of it," he said. We want people to know that the idea is to create an open forum for people to bring ideas and concerns to a larger voice, and if they have projects that they would like to see implemented, or suggestions for us, we want all of the input we can get. It's important for people to remember that while we're representatives, if you will, we're just temporary, and other people will take these reins in a year. We want people of all ages to please feel free to participate and encourage the rest of the people in their family to do the same."
The Glendover Neighborhood Association will be hosting its first meet and greet from 6 - 9 p.m. March 8 at Community Montessori (166 Crestwood Dr.). For more information, e-mail glendoverna@gmail.com or call Hicks at (859) 421-0731. The association also has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/GlendoverNA.