Local & State Headlines

Neighbors spring clean

• One city leader encourages blighted Albany communities to apply for a HUD grant to improve the appearance of their neighborhood.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — City leaders Wednesday showcased a garden funded by a Housing and Urban Development grant planted by community residents to beautify their neighborhood.

The garden on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at Wadkins Avenue is the second planted by Albany neighborhoods in an effort to combat blight in the community, Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful Executive Director Judy Bowles said at the site Wednesday.

Bowles said KADB is encouraging neighborhoods to apply for the remaining eight $2,000 grants to help Albany’s appearance.

Not only does it help keep the city clean, she said, but helps to combat crime, too.

“It encourages community pride and sends the message that the residents care about the neighborhood and (that) they want it crime free,” Bowles said.

Because they had to see the unsightly area daily, Wadkins Avenue resident James Idlett and his brother-in-law Hillard Potts decided they wanted to do something to fix up the intersection of Wadkins with MLK Jr. Drive.

“What happened was I passed by here during the day — I live on this street,” he said. “We noticed it wasn’t looking kept up. We said we wanted to adopt it as a project, especially with it being on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.”

Idlett said he called Ward 6 Commissioner Tommie Postell to see what could be done to improve the area and was referred to Bowles.

The intersection has a bulky cell phone tower with neighboring utility boxes that contrast sharply against the neighborhood’s brick homes. A hedge of privacy bushes once surrounded the tower, though many have died.

Idlett and a volunteer crew replaced the dead bushes with rose bushes, finishing the project in mid-January, but Idlett and Potts decided to adopt the area and keep it in good shape. Now the tower has a more attractive mixture of roses and bushes.

Thanks to the intersection’s beautification, Idlett said other neighborhood residents have “been inspired” to keep the neighborhood clean.

To that end, Bowles encouraged communities with blight to apply for the grants, which must be approved by HUD. Bowles can be reached at (229) 430-5257 for more information about the grants.

Postell, who was at the Wednesday event, said both the city and community benefit from the neighborhoods that choose to beautify their blighted areas.

“The city is behind them in their endeavors as long as it’s going to promote the city and their community,” he said.

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