Working With The City

I am so happy with the City of Columbus! They are GREAT!! Here are some very interesting things I learned today about our city, parks, city council, and community gardens with just a few quick phone calls. (I would like to add that phone calls actually get picked up by PEOPLE who are very helpful! YAY COLUMBUS!)

Lesson 1: It could be very valuable for our community garden group to apply for a Friends of Sycamore Hills Park status. I have the application now (thanks, Rachel!), but I will check in with Tina first.

If we become Friends of SH, we can actually apply for a $1000 grant to beautify the park AND become our own 501(c)(3) which means we could offer tax write offs for donations AND we would not have to be under SHRA 501(c7) status which might cause problems in applying for grants since they ask for the 501(c)(3) tax exemption number.

Just to put it in writing, my vision for the garden in relation to SHRA is that the Curator will be an elected seat on the SHRA board. I want this so that this project is not solely dependent on me, but can be run by others in the future as well. This will benefit the community, the garden, and bring new energy and ideas into the way the community garden works. So, regardless of the possibilities of being our own separate entity, I still do want to be a part of SHRA and I think being our own entity as well can only enhance this partnership.

Here is an image from the website about the grant and a listing of some of the other Friends Groups. There is always the possibility that the current budget cut backs will effect this grant possibility, but it is a good resource to keep in mind for the future.


Lesson 2: This is our councilwoman in charge of City Parks. I spoke to her Legislative Assistant, Rachel and she was a wealth of information. Rachel said that Councilwoman Tyson is very supportive of community initiated events, and that it would be great to tell her about the garden someday.



Lesson 3: I have been very lucky to have the assistance of Tina. She is very supportive of this idea. I found her through Bill Dawson at Franklin Park Conservatory, but this is another way I could have gotten in contact, too.

Moral of the story: contact your city! Strangely enough, these new lessons are all the result of calling 311 to ask a few questions because someone came and painted the street that I live on with official looking markings!