What’s Happening In The South Mountain/Laveen Village’s

George A. Young

“Well Folks remember; God loves you for whom God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.”

Please join the community at the South Mountain Village Planning Committee (SMVPC) meetings for the planning of the General Plan.  Note below: we have moved our meeting location as of February. This planning process will extend for about 12 months.  For information on the SMVPC agenda please contact the City of Phoenix Planning Department.  Our planner is Josh Bednarek at (602-262-6823) e-mail joshua.bednarek@phoenix.gov.  To inquire about developments in the South Mountain/Laveen Village’s please e-mail or call George at (gayoung@cox.net or 602-243-3162).

Well folks, hope you all had a great Christmas and a Safe New Years.  I spent Christmas with my family and we had a great time.  Looks like 2010 is going to be a much better year.  Things got a little tough last year for some folks.  Seems like everybody is having problems with their budgets.  Our Families, the Fed’s, the State, our counties and most of our cities.  The City of Phoenix will be conducting public meetings again this year to discuss the cuts that have been proposed.  Please take the time and attend these meetings in your District and voice your opinions.  I would like to see all of our services kept, but with the current source of revenues for the City it looks like that is not going to be possible.  Not sure how much political will there is at City Hall to create a new source of revenues, but I am not sure how we maintain our current level of commitment to our citizens without some other source of revenues.  I am not a big believer in taxes, but at some point I believe the City needs to look at a food or gas tax, or some kind of revenue generating source other than what currently exist.  It is clear to me that the current plan is not working.  I did hear some folks at City Hall think outsourcing is part of the answer.  Given our past experiences with these at all levels of government I disagree.  Currently I believe the City of Phoenix employees do a great job for the residents.  We should do what we can to maintain the current level of customer service.

I am so proud of you folks.  We had our first public meeting for the South Central Avenue Corridor Plan and we had a great response.  We set the stage for the next event.  The numbers sent a clear message to the City and our political leaders.  I also want to thank all our leaders for the support they gave us and look forward to working with them.  This process will be very important to our Village in the future.  I sincerely hope we continue to have the participation we started with.  Thanks again.

The 2010 Census is soon, please fill out the form and send it back.  Thanks.  Earth day this year will be on April 22^nd. downtown Phoenix.  Please join us and learn about what’s green and all the new sustainability efforts that are available for Phoenix.

• The South Mountain Village Planning Committee will meet on February 8^th. 2010 at 6:30 PM at the South Mountain Community Collage, Student Union Hall, 7050 South 24^th. Street.
• The Target Area B Citizens Action Committee will meet on February 24^th. 2010 at 6:30 PM at the Travis L. Williams Family Services Center, 4732 South Central Avenue.
• The South Mountain/Laveen Village Festival Committee will meet on February 2^nd. 2010 at 4 PM at 3540 E. Baseline Rd.
• South Mountain Village Clean & Beautiful Committee will meet on February 10^th. 2010 at 4 PM at the Heritage Neighborhood Resource building on 2405 East Broadway Road.

“Remember Folks; Get outside everyday, miracles are waiting everywhere and all that truly matters in the end is that you loved.”