Happy new year, Neighbors!
It’s another . . . FRIGID day in the ol’ West End. Hope you’re all staying warm in this latest Siberian Blast. As I’m writing this letter my thermometer is reading right at 0! That’s cold!! For comparison, my sister lives in Anchorage, Alaska, and the current temp there is 33 degrees. Stay safe in this weather. I will say it’s great to have so much sunshine.
Despite the frigid temps, we had a great turnout for this week’s membership meeting. At that meeting we presented the 2025 budget, which incorporates our updated spending policy for the neighborhood. To guide our spending, the WCNA conducted a member survey to hear your thoughts on how best to use our
resources. Kelly Benton, our VP, presented the results which I’ll briefly highlight here:
Transformative Projects
Urban Trail development came out on top. This is an effort to make our neighborhoods more walkable and bikeable and to generally promote transportation beyond cars. As many of you know, there are city efforts to connect our downtown assets like Electric Works, Parkview Field, The Landing, Promenade Park, Headwaters and other attractions. In second place was Moody Park upgrades, and then a close third was Thieme Overlook improvements.
Infrastructure & Repair
Brick streets and alley restoration was the clear winner here. In a distant second place was sidewalk and street repair. Remember that the WCNA provides our
members with financial support for sidewalk and curb repairs, where we will pay half the amount after the city’s portion. You can find the specific details here.
Member Programs
The results here show that all of our current programs are very popular! There was no clear winner, but by a nose Home Beautification came out on top. Sidewalks & curbs and tree planting had nearly identical scores in second & third place respectively. So we’ll continue to invest in these member programs.
While the survey is completed, we welcome any ideas for spending that you may have. You can contact any of WCNA board members with the email addresses below, or email us at info@westcentralneighborhood.org.
New Member Event
In the next several weeks we’ll be holding our first ever – and then annual – new member welcome event! The location and specifics are still being determined, but it will definitely be within the neighborhood and we’re looking at Monday, February 10. This will be a great opportunity to meet our newest neighbors and members, plus kibitz with your WCNA friends and just generally socialize. It will be a great winter break that will propel us toward spring!
Guest Speaker
Our next meeting with be on Monday, February 17 at 7:00 pm. The guest speaker will be Scott Ferguson, owner of Chapman’s Brewery at Electric Works and now the new manager of Union Street Market. Scott will be providing some sneak peaks into new events and vendors that will be coming to the market during the coming year. He’s very excited with these new developments and just loves the support that the West Central has provided from the very beginning.
New Social Club
Speaking of Electric Works, the West Central Wine Club (WC2) has started meeting the first and third Thursday of each month at the new Neon Pear. Gathering starts at 6 pm. The Neon Pear is a new wine and spirit bar in the Union St Market East (same side as Plough Shares). They promise to do wine tastings and other special things just for our new club. While this is not a neighborhood sponsored event, we love helping to spread the word about events that are open to everyone!
Stay in Touch
Don’t forget we have a WCNA Facebook page to keep us all connected and informed of the association’s activities and events. In addition, there’s the Beyond Porch Parties Facebook group, which is not specific to the WCNA, but is specific to the West Central neighborhood. (If you request to join the Facebook group, make sure you pause and answer the membership questions.) Both are great ways to stay in the know.
Hope to see you all soon – especially at our monthly membership meetings.
Joel Sauer, President
(260) 433-3672
2025 Board Officers
- Membership: Anita Kuker membership@westcentralneighborhood.org
- President: Joel Sauer president@westcentralneighborhood.org
- Secretary: Bethany Pruitt secretary@westcentralneighborhood.org
- Treasurer: George Taylor treasurer@westcentralneighborhood.org
- Vice President: Kelly Benton VP@westcentralneighborhood.org