Pictured far right, Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, talks about neighborhood initiatives that are coming up soon. Screenshot courtesy of the City of Jamestown’s website.

Neighborhood projects are ongoing in the city, with a few events coming up in the next few weeks to help continue housing work in the city.

During Monday’s work session of the city council, Councilman Bill Reynolds, R-Ward 5, and chair of the housing committee said Crystal Surdyk, development director, updated the Housing Committee on some of these projects and events.

“Hands On Neighborhood is May 17,” Reynolds said. “It starts at 8 a.m. and ends around noon time. Registration is open, so you can certainly participate in that on the 17th.”

Also on May 17 is a South Side walkabout, being done by the people who are working on the city’s comprehensive plan. That is set to start around 10 a.m. for those who want to join in.

Reynolds also briefly discussed that the potential to hear about Housing and Urban Development federal funding for the next year may come soon.

“She hopes to hear by May 12 the new HUD formula,” Reynolds said. “The new formula is coming out to hopefully share with us what our future funding might be.”

One last event for the city discussed by the housing committee has been mentioned a few times before, and is the Developers Forum set for April 30 at Wicked Warrens, starting at 10 a.m. The plan is to bring in developers and others interested in doing housing projects in the city.

The Developers Forum was also discussed during the last city council work session at the beginning of April by the BPU’s Ellen Ditonto, who is helping to host the forum. During that meeting, Ditonto said part of the Developer’s Forum will be to have the people who come in go on walking or trolley tours to visit all of the areas that are being looked at for infill housing and historic building reuse projects, including Fluvanna Avenue, Spring Street, Fulton Street, Vega Street, Eagle Street, Johnson Street and Cross Street. Ditonto noted that many of these streets are known to need help and that many have had multiple demolitions and will be looked at for housing. The historic buildings that they will be looking at during these tours at the Developers Forum include the Willow Bay Building, the Bank Building, the Worsted Mill Building, Blackstone Ney, the Mayflower building and the Furniture Mart.

“(There will be) contractors, politicians, investors, real estate bankers, and the like to have … good dialogue on what we might be able to do to make a difference in our city,” Reynolds said.