Neighborworks Looks at Moving to Oshkosh

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NeighborWorks Looks at Moving In to Oshkosh
Updated: 'Thursday, November 11, 2010
By Emily Matesic

The City of Oshkosh is under the microscope today as officials with NeighborWorks, a neighborhood revitalization organization, decides if it wants to start a chapter in the lakefront community.

A room full of people Thursday was a good indication of how much Oshkosh residents care about their community, and that's exactly what NeighborWorks looks for when it chooses a community to work with.

"Quite frankly, I think it's a great community. There's terrific potential in the neighborhoods. We have a problem with too many people, not a lack of people, so I think it's a great combination," Domenick Martinelli of NeighborWorks said.

But the convincing isn't going to get done by sitting in a room, so late Thursday afternoon some at today's meeting headed out for a walking tour on the city's east side, the oldest section of town.

That's the area community officials would like to tackle first.

"The neighborhoods have been organizing. They want to organize in this community, so NeighborWorks is going to be able to help them do that," Eileen Connolly-Kessler said. She's CEO of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation.

"We want to make sure that elderly people can stay in their homes if they want that option. We want to make sure that low-income people have some resources and tools to be able to keep their properties up," she said.

The idea of NeighborWorks isn't to simply rehabilitate rundown homes. Instead, its purpose is give neighborhoods an identity to make people want to settle in them.

And officials with NeighborWorks say Oshkosh fits the mold of communities it likes to help.
"The houses are old and worn out and they've gone through a lot, and now it's time to refocus on that and say, what's the future of these neighborhoods going to look like? And then we go from there," Martinelli said.

While NeighborWorks hasn't signed on the dotted line, we're told things look promising for the partnership. The first project of rehabilitation in Oshkosh could begin as early as next spring.

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