Ellendale Neighborhood Association — To Be or Not To Be?
Residents of the Ellendale Neighborhood met tonight to discuss the future of the Ellendale Neighborhood Association.
Jacqi Beachler, a new resident to Ellendale, was looking for a community organization after she moved here in the late Fall of 2014. She found it and attended their last meeting in February 2015. After recent decline in participation, what was left of the Assiciation disbanded at the February meeting.
But Jacqi still wanted to be involved in her new community.
So Jacqi contacted Nancy Thompson of the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO) and with Nancy’s guidance, Jacqi secured the former meeting location, made flyers, and passed them out to an initial set of 200 homes surrounding her house (not knowning the exact boundries of the Neighborhood at that time). The flyers gave notice of the May 11th meeting where the main discussion was to be trying to restart the Association.
Jacqi was also able to have a member of the Great Rivers Greenway project at the meeting to answer questions about the future bike trail eventually being installed along Ellendale Avenue.
About 30 or so people attended the meeting (held at the Piccadilly Restaurant, 7201 Picadilly Avenue).
By the end of the meeting residents agreed that there was interest in restoring the Association. A committee of about ten residents was formed to explore the possibilities of revitalizing the Ellendale Neighborhood Association (ENA).