POTTSVILLE -- Pottsville's "Neighborhoods First" initiative will begin in just a few weeks and promises to make one positive change in each community it targets.
The initiative in Pottsville will start with people in each neighborhood being asked to speak up.
The city is creating a Facebook page that will be a forum for those voices, and it will also announce meetings that will take place in each neighborhood.
Tina Felty owns a home on Laurel Boulevard and calls blight a big issue. Even though the city is scheduled to knock down a dilapidated property across the street, one next door remains boarded up.
"With them and that, what's the value of your home really?" Felty asked.
Through the city's new "Neighborhoods First" initiative, it hopes to go into each neighborhood, hear the complaints, and start making changes.
If there is a pothole in some neighborhood in Pottsville, a blighted property, or a playground in need of revamping, the city hopes that people will feel empowered through this initiative and lend a helping hand to make a difference.
"We are hoping we will engage the community a little bit more as well with the people who will roll up their sleeves," said city administrator Thomas Palamar.
Palamar says the city plans to create a Facebook page and set dates to visit each neighborhood. It will then work with people there to tackle the things troubling them.
"When we go into each neighborhood to have our little meetings or discussion with folks, we are also going to hope to culminate it with action, some sort of action. So in each area, we are either going to pick up litter, or plant a tree, or paint a park bench, or repair or replace something."
The Facebook page for Pottsville's Neighborhood First initiative should be up by the end of the month, and on that page, it will have dates for where and when officials will meet in each neighborhood.
