Southwind Awarded Grant Money

At the Arlington City Council meeting on 24 April 2018, the City of Arlington awarded the Southwind Community Association $24,600 from their Neighborhood Matching Grant Award program. In February 2018, Stephanie Ndiaye, Vice-President for the Southwind Board of Directors, submitted a request to the City for a matching grant to make improvements to the Collins Pond area. Southwind will contribute a matching $24,600 for a total of $49,200 in improvements this year. The Southwind contribution will be funded from monies received from a cost sharing assessment from Lennar, who are building the Southwind Meadows housing addition. These funds will go towards installing wide concrete walking paths connecting Moon River Ct., Squirrel Run Ct., and Rainland Ct. with a bridge going over the spillway at Collins Pond. A bench, trash receptacles, pet waste stations, and trees will be installed along the walkway. This improvement is the first iteration of several towards improvements at Collins pond. Click here to view the proposed overall landscape plan for Collins Pond improvements.

Southwind Board members Scherron Richard (President), Stephanie Ndiaye, and John Jurik attended the City Council meeting to accept this award. The Southwind award was the largest of nine awards granted to Arlington neighborhoods. A total of $90,000 was awarded by the City to various neighborhoods this year. The board members met with Arlington mayor Jeff Williams and Sarah Stubblefield of Community Development and Planning after the meeting. The mayor indicated the City strongly supports this program and would fully fund it next year. He encouraged Southwind to submit another request in 2019, which we will certainly do.

The Southwind Board is also taking advantage of the Arlington L.E.A.F. program, which provides free trees to residents and communities. We received 15 smaller trees in April which were planted at Collins Pond, and expect 10 more larger trees in the September timeframe. Taking advantage of this program has saved our community thousands of dollars to make our improvement funds go further.