Citizen’s Council
Our newly formed committee is named Citizens Council and will act as a constructive advisory committee to assist the Village Board and the Village, in general, in furthering the improvement of our community.
The next Citizen’s Council meeting will be on:
Monday, October 18, 2021 at 7:00 pm at Village Hall
July 26, 2021 Citizens Council Meeting Minutes
June 21 2021 Citizen Council Meeting Minutes
May 24, 2021 Citizen Council Meeting Update
The first meeting of the NHP Citizens Council took place on May 24th, 2021. While the Council’s structure is still being designed, for now we are meeting as one group. Our next meeting will take place at NHP Memorial Park on June 21st at 7PM, if weather permits. If not, it will be held at Village Hall (1420 NHP Road).
Eventually the plan is to divide into smaller interest and/or service groups to accomplish respective goals. We will join as one large group monthly to update the members of the Council on the respective progress of each interest or service group. Since we are a village-sponsored council, all goals will be shared with the Village Board via written ‘action plans’ prior to commencing. The NHP Feral Cat Committee is the first service group that has submitted its first Action Plan to the NHP Village Board. More about that will be shared in the coming weeks.
While each participant brought something different to our discussion, there are common threads that guided us to forming the following interest and/or service groups that will:
- suggest and/organize activities and community events that create a sense of “identity” that unites us as NHP neighbors – both north and south side residents – (i.e., community picnics in the park, autumn harvest festival, interesting presentations, etc.).
- does outreach to residents from “the greatest generation” to foster a sense of inclusion; (i.e. matching seniors with students in school via pen pals, remembering seniors on holidays/birthdays, wellness checks during storms, etc.)
- organize educational opportunities to inform residents about critical issues and provide them with the knowledge/”tools” to address them successfully; This includes the new Feral Cat Committee headed up by Kimberly Huemmer Kane.
- explore ways to welcome new residents (i.e. restarting “NHP Welcome Wagon” to inform new neighbors with important info about village rules and community engagement)
- provide our youth with programs that foster long-lasting connections with fellow NHP peers as well as the greater community, in general; explore the hiring of a “NHP Youth Advisor” who can organize/execute such programs (i.e., movie nights, gaming events, book clubs, field trips, etc.)
- support our downtown business district with initiatives that stress the need to shop locally; explore ways to attract new businesses to NHP that will enhance the shopping experiences of NHP residents as well as others from neighboring communities.
- create an advocacy team for addressing recurring problems that affect our quality of life like (1) conflicts between the commercial and residential districts; (2) impacts of the LIRR project and (3) the future of the LIRR corridor, etc.
- build awareness about federal, state and local legislation that can potentially impact our community’s future; starting an advocacy team that reaches out to decision-makers based on community consensus about this legislation.
The NHP Citizens Council is a living entity — it grows and changes as we do as a community. If you have a particular interest in any of these potential groups or have suggestions for other interest/service groups, please reach out to Diane Bentivegna at diane.bentivegna@gmail.com (with your address and contact info).