Coalition helps North Siders with sprucing up their lawns

The landscaping program works through city block watches.
& lt;a href=mailto:rgsmith@vindy.com & gt;By ROGER SMITH & lt;/a & gt;
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A new elementary school is going up in Ted Szmaj's North Side neighborhood. He wants the surrounding homes to look new, or at least improved, too.
That's why a new program that helps homeowners pay for basic landscaping is such a boost, said Szmaj, president of the Know Your Neighbor Block Watch.
The North Side Citizens' Coalition is paying 75 percent of landscaping costs for work up to $300 in qualified neighborhoods. Homeowners pay the remaining portion.
Eight residents on Cordova and Benita avenues in Szmaj's neighborhood are having work done.
The program pays for labor-intensive maintenance work such as mowing, trimming bushes and trees, cleaning flower beds and mulching.
The landscaping doesn't amount to huge makeovers. But the effort shows that people are taking back pride in their neighborhood, Szmaj said.
"It's the little things that really count," he said. "People start seeing we care about our neighborhood. People are pulling together."
The program is about binding homeowners in neighborhoods across the city, said James Boyd, program officer at the North Side Coalition.
Twofold purpose
The group wants the program to make major visual improvements to neighborhoods while improving community involvement, he said.
That's why the landscaping program works through city block watches. The coalition will take landscaping requests from residents whose neighborhoods have a block watch leader in the coalition's leadership program. There are about a dozen block watch officers from the North and South sides who are involved in the leadership program, Boyd said.
Residents are encouraged to join or start a block watch if they aren't participating already, he said.
The coalition has a grant from the Wean Foundation to pay for the landscaping. Boyd declined to reveal how much.
There should be enough money to run the program through next year, he said.
The coalition hopes homeowners using the program will continue making improvements after the basic landscaping is done. Sometimes, an overgrown yard will deter homeowners from even starting an improvement project, Boyd said.
Domino effect
Such efforts also influence neighbors who don't tap the program, Szmaj said. Residents will spend money to improve their homes after seeing their neighbors having done work, he said.
The landscaping program is helping elderly people in his area who can't do the work themselves and those who can't afford to hire somebody, Szmaj said.
"It really is a good thing for some people," he said.
& lt;a href=mailto:rgsmith@vindy.com & gt;rgsmith@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;