Owasso Neighborhood Program Wins Excellence Award
By EMILY RAMSEY
Assistant Editor
LOCAL BEAUTY: Residents take part in the Owasso CARES program, part of the Strong Neighborhood Initiative. The CARES program organizes neighborhood beautification projects in an effort to maintain property values and encourage community involvement.
EMILY RAMSEY for GTR Newspapers
By Emily Ramsey
Assistant Editor
Owasso’s Strong Neighborhood Initiative () received top honors from the Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Environmental Excellence Awards Competition. The program Owasso CARES was recognized in early November as a 2012 winner in the government programs category at the Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Annual Environmental Excellence Celebration ceremony.
The Keep Oklahoma Beautiful Statewide Environmental Excellence Awards annually recognize Oklahomans for exceptional environmental improvement efforts.
Owasso CARES is directed by Neighborhood Coordinator Jerry Fowler and led by a committee of resident volunteers with the idea of bringing residents, volunteers and city staff together in a private-public partnership to make a positive impact in local neighborhoods and the community.
“Our focus is to bring the community together to make a positive impact in neighborhoods and in our community,” says Fowler. “This is a proactive way of tackling small neighborhood repairs now to combat major remodels in later years.”
The program aims to partner the city and residents together to encourage residents to get involved in their neighborhoods and make them successful.
Other programs within the initiative include the alert neighborhood, street sign toppers and grant programs.
The alert neighborhood program endeavors to create partnerships between Owasso neighborhoods and the police department to heighten awareness and to prevent crime.
The street sign topper program began to create neighborhood identities and to increase neighborhood visibility to non-residents.
The neighborhood matching grant program matches funds raised by neighborhood associations for beautification projects.
Updated 12-11-2012
READER COMMENTS
