Brookfield to give out beautification awards

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

The goal is to make the township more attractive to potential and existing residents.

BROOKFIELD — Township officials and social groups will be offering awards to property owners who bring out the aesthetic beauty in their homes and businesses.

Trustees have established a Township Betterment and Beautification Committee that will be responsible for selecting those pieces of property with the most desirable appearance. The five-member committee will be made up of one person from each of five organizations — The Optimist Club, Rotary Club, Brookfield Woman’s Club, Brookfield Historical Society and The Brookfield Senior Citizens Club.

Trustee Gary Lees said trustees have been looking at different avenues of cleaning up the township and decided that awarding those already taking the initiative would be a good step.

“We thought that because we were spending so much time with our public nuisances and doing so much to clean up the township, we would look at beautification awards for residents who have maintained their property and to those business owners who have made improvements to landscaping,” said Lees.

Awards will be given in three areas: outstanding commercial landscape design, outstanding residential landscape design and outstanding residential landscape design (front yard only).

The committee will be leaving nomination forms at various banks and supermarkets, and residents can also request a form from any township trustee. The forms can be used by residents to nominate any piece of property in the township for an award.

Lees said the committee will take all the nominations into consideration when selecting the properties to receive the awards. The nomination forms must be returned to the committee by Aug. 15. The awards will be handed out in September.

Lees said he expects the award process to have a major impact on the aesthetic appearance of the township and property values as well.

“I feel this certainly will help property owners keep the value of their property,” Lees said.

Trustees, according to Lees, have also been toying with the idea of hiring a property maintenance officer to enforce property maintenance law. He said the township has no official zoning, but county and state property maintenance laws must be enforced, and an officer specifically for that purpose is ideal.

“We first want to research and see how much the cost will be, but that is the direction in which we want to go,” he said.

The ultimate goal is to make the township more attractive to incoming residents, such as those coming to the area to work at the General Motors Lordstown plant.

“Where are they going to go? They want to go somewhere where they are not going to lose any investment in their property — that is where they are going to go,” he said.

jgoodwin@vindy.com