My
Vision
What
do I envision to make Cheltenham even greater than it is? Click
on the links below to see my plans for Cheltenham.
Concerts
in the Park
This
is a great Cheltenham program; it should be maintained
and enhanced.
Eight years ago Mickey formed a citizens’ committee
to make this happen. The Township strongly supports this
concept and now, as a Commissioner, Mickey
continues to work with the Parks and Recreation Department and
the continuing citizens’ committee (which deserves
the great thanks of the Township and several members of which
live in the 6th Ward)
to
make it a continuing
success.
Mickey
wants to maintain and enhance this program. The Committee seeks
to create broadly diversified programming which will appeal
to a cross
section
of musical
tastes. Unlike many concert series, this is free, and Mickey
sees it as a means to bring the community together and to market
the
benefits of Cheltenham.
Mickey
works to try to get sponsorship so that costs to the Township
are kept
as low as possible. He wants to maintain and enhance this program
and he and
the Committee
are always looking for input from the community on how to improve
it.
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Economic
development
to enhance the “livability” and
tax
base
Cheltenham
needs to continue to enhance its commercial districts and be
more business-friendly to improve the non-residential
tax base and be more
attractive
to present and prospective businesses and residents.
Before
his election as Commissioner, Mickey worked hard as a member
of, and ultimately vice chair of, the Economic Development
Task
Force and
the Main
Street Program
which was part of the Task Force. This included work on the
Commercial
District Enhancement Plan which provided a vision of what
development in Cheltenham
might entail. These programs are beginning to make progress.
As
a Commissioner, Mickey wants to continue the progress
in making Cheltenham more business-friendly.
He will continue to work hard to make the Commercial
District Enhancement Plan a
reality. Work is already moving along in the Glenside
area, designs have been made for signage around the Township,
and the East
Elkins Park area
in the
6th Ward is now under design contract. The Township is
still largely a residential community and the Commissioners
must
be careful to
maintain a balance between
residential uses and commercial uses, but Mickey sees
businesses
as a means
to
make the Township more “livable” with more
local restaurants and retailers making it possible to
avoid leaving
the Township
for all of your retail
needs. This also spreads the tax base and helps control
taxes on the single family residences.
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Free wireless Internet access
Mickey
initiated this concept in Cheltenham this year, initially
at Wall Park and the pools. Come out and use
it – it’s
free, no passwords, no ID required.
Mickey
initiated the concept of free wireless Internet access,
initially at Wall Park, and the
concept now encompasses
the two pools. Township staff
worked
hard
to get the program up and running for this summer. The
current three locations are intended to provide access
located at
both ends and the middle of the
Township. The Township intends to keep the system in
place all year at Wall Park and
hopes to move it from the pools to Glenside library and
Rowland Community Center/library after the pool season
ends.
Mickey
sees this program as adding to the “livability” of
the Township, as an added benefit provided by the Township
which will show the
world that Cheltenham
is at the cutting edge of technology and cares about
modern technology. Like increasing local businesses mentioned
above, this program
hopefully will
attract residents to the Township, but also possibly
small
high tech businesses which
see what the Township is trying to do. Hopefully this
program will attract some favorable publicity for the Township.
While Mickey
initiated, promoted
and pushed
the idea, he is happy to say that the Commissioners
have all seen its potential and have voted unanimously
to
support
it.
The
program is brand new. The Township is trying to spread
the word, and I would ask all of you who read
this and
have the wireless
card
capacity, go
to Wall
Park or the pools and try it, see if you like it.
Take your children to
the park or pools and if you do not want to surf
the pool all of the time, surf
the net,
or do some work or communicate with friends and relatives
by email. It is simple – there
are no passwords or ID numbers required, and it is
free so there are no accounts to open or access.
All you need is a computer with a wireless card.
If
the program gets substantial usage, the Commissioners
may decide to expand the locations.
The Wall Park location does not appear quite able to
reach the Elkins Park Library in the 6th Ward and libraries
have been facing considerable funding cuts from
the State. Mickey believes that if there appears to
be substantial demand, consideration should be given
to
providing this service to the Elkins Park Library and
LaMott
Library/Community Center where the existing demand
for landline-based computer access is beyond the ability
of the libraries to meet.
As
the information age expands and more materials
are available on the Internet
just by clicking a mouse, increased availability
of the
Internet is a way to expand library materials
without having to spend substantial dollars on hard
copies and as residents become more
competent with Internet research it may reduce
demands on librarians’ time.
Please let me and the other Commissioners
know your thoughts on this entire program and its
future,
including
use in
the libraries.
Back to My Vision
We must support our parks
Cheltenham
has a large and diverse park system ; it is of benefit
to the Township to maintain
and
enhance the parks
as much
as prudently and fiscally possible.
Cheltenham
has one of the largest park and open space systems
in Montgomery County.
The parks are
very
diverse in geography
and
in description.
They are well-used
by organized programs of both the Township
and private organizations. They are also
well-used by individuals
who are not part of
organized groups.
While the
parks are open to all, their proximity
to
our residents
is very important.
When “Once
upon a Playground” was being
proposed for Wall Park, residents
were saying that
they did
not want
to have to
travel long distances
to find the
type of park
area activities they were seeking.
That playground has now been open
for just over
a year (Thank
you to the community
volunteers
who spent
immense
amounts
of money, but especially effort,
to make that playground happen) and
it
appears
to be getting
substantial
usage. There is currently
a feasibility
study being
done about other possible uses for
Wall Park which is located right
in the middle
of the
Township
and Mickey looks forward
to the results
of
that study
and what
possible additional improvement can
be prudently made.
Back to My Vision
We
must support our libraries
as much as prudently possible
The
Cheltenham library system gets very substantial and
growing usage; our residents
must believe in the
system because they use it a lot.
Our
residents use the library system a lot. The system is
spread throughout
the Township making
it easier
to use, especially
for students who may have to walk
or ride bikes. Statistics show that usage is also
increasing substantially. Financial support
from outside
of the Township
has been cut drastically although it is
increasing somewhat.
Cheltenham
is a highly educated
community and many of its residents are attracted by the
educational
facilities.
Even though the
School District
has just cut the last small number of public
library dollars from its own budget,
those
educational
facilities include
the libraries. The Cheltenham Commissioners have
supported the libraries and
I have been strongly supportive
of that. The Township cannot
necessarily make up every dollar lost from all sources,
but the Commissioners must consider
the role of the libraries in making this a viable and
attractive
community and
consider what financial assistance
can
be given to the libraries on
a fiscally prudent basis.
One
possible areas of support,
mentioned above, is proving free
wireless Internet access in the libraries.
See the last paragraph of the
section above about Internet access for further discussion.
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to My Vision
Marketing
our
great community to our residents and the rest of
the
world
It
is not enough for Cheltenham to be great, the
whole
world,
including
present
and prospective residents,
must
know
it.
Cheltenham
works hard
to keep
its residents
aware
of what
is going
on in
the Township.
The
annual calendar
and
semi-annual
updates
mailed to
all
households
contain
substantial information.
The
Cheltenham website
(go to www.cheltenhamtownship.org)
is
a substantial
resource
of all
kinds
of information
about the
Township;
Mickey suggests
that you
go there
to find
out about
the
free
wireless
internet
access,
the
Wall
Park
feasibility
study,
the variety
of
programs
for
business.
We should
work
to
keep
the
website
as up-to-date
as
possible
and get
as
much
information
onto
it as possible.
It connects to a
variety of relevant
websites and
we should
try to
expand
that
availability.
By the
way, you can go
to www.mickeysimon.com
(where
you are now) to
find connectors to
a variety of websites,
many of which
are also
links to
cheltenhamtownship.org;
I hope
it is as easy for you to remember www.mickeysimon.com as www.cheltenhamtownship.org.
The
website
is
accessible
by
the
whole
world
with
a
computer,
but
we
must
try
to
get
press
releases
about
community
events
and
other
human
interest
stories
in
the
press
as
much
as
possible.
We
need
to
make
Cheltenham
as
attractive
a
community
in
which
to
live
as
possible.
Many
of
Mickey’s
ideas
on
this
page
are
focused
on
trying
to
do
just
that,
making
Cheltenham
uniquely
attractive.
Concerts
in
the
Park
was
intended
to
do
that
and
free
wireless
Internet
is
intended
to
do
that.
After
much
discussion
the
Commissioners
unanimously
approved
the
construction
of
a
new
dog
park
in
Curtis
with
funds
to
be
raised
by
a
citizens
group
to
be
formed
to
support
the
dog
park,
and
hopefully
the
dog park
will
also
do
that.
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Reduced borrowing costs
It
is a fact of life that
municipalities need to borrow money for cash flow and
capital
projects; Mickey
wants borrowing costs to be as low as
possible.
Mickey
initiated
consideration of a longer term borrowing
timeline in view of the
historically low current
interest rates. As Chair of
the Finance
Committee Mickey suggested consideration
of a bond
offering which covered
a longer timeline with
the
intention (supported
by the Township’s
financial
advisor, staff,
and ultimately
the unanimous
vote of
the Commissioners) of locking
in current low
interest rates
and reducing related
out-of-pocket borrowing costs
by reducing the number
of bond offerings which
the Township
would have to make
for its anticipated needs.
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