Community Excellence Award Update

Oak Park Wins the Region 1 Race for the Cup with
their Blight-Prevention Project

The votes are in!  After many excellent presentations by officials across the region, attendees chose the city of Oak Park as the Region 1 finalist for the Community Excellence Award.  

Oak Park won the peer-nomination against three neighboring communities for its Kidsbuild project, which took a fire-gutted, abandoned building and created an attractive, highly marketable, virtually new residential structure.  An added bonus is that the once-abandoned property will return to the city’s tax rolls.  Kidsbuild is a collaborative blight-prevention strategy orchestrated among the city of Oak Park, the Oak Park Business and Education Alliance (OPBEA), and the Oak Park School District. 

In his winning presentation, Oak Park City Manager James Hock explained that the city proposed Oak Park High School students enrolled in its building trades course be utilized as hands-on workers in rehabilitating a residential duplex destroyed by fire.  “The OPBEA has an ongoing relationship with the Oak Park School District by partnering with private sector employers to provide mentoring and vocational opportunities to students,” Hock said.

This win places Oak Park in the running for the ultimate win—the 2008 Community Excellence Award Cup!  The final competition will be fierce, pitting the winner from each region against each other for the BIG win, which will be announced at the 2008 Annual Michigan Municipal League Convention on Mackinac Island, October 1-4, 2008.  Don’t miss out—register early (June 2) to come out to vote for your favorite project.  Congratulations to the City of Oak Park!

If you have questions about the Community Excellence Award program please contact Kim Cekola at kcekola@mml.org or 734-669-6321.