Mayor Pushes 'Overdue' City Beautification Initiative

Mayor Frank Huttle has talked of beautifying Englewood since he took office in 2010, but this budget season he’ll actually be getting substantial city money to support his aims.

Council approved a $4.3 million bond ordinance last week that, at Huttle’s request, appropriates $212,000 for citywide park improvements, construction of a 9/11 Memorial in Depot Square Park and restoration of the Soldier’s Monument on W. Palisade Avenue.

“We have to take care of our city,” he said at last week’s budget workshop session. “Our city is our home and people are not seeing it.”

Huttle would like to begin Englewood’s beautification efforts by restoring the Soldier’s Monument downtown, which he said is chipped and in need of major repair and refinishing. He hopes to have the refurbishment done in time for Veterans Day.

“Beyond repointing the granite and the shrubberies on the outside,” Huttle said. “We’re going to have lights shoot up onto the monument, so at any part of the city when you’re driving in we can honor our veterans and make that monument as it looked when it was first constructed.”

Adam Brown, chairman of the Englewood Economic Development Corporation, said the non-profit stood behind restoration of the monument and would be amenable to contributing money and expertise to the project.

“We stand ready to help the city in any way that the city feels is necessary,” he said. “The EEDC strongly supports efforts to beautify the business district and we look forward to working with the city in any way that will help advance that initiative.”

An Englewood 9/11 monument slated for Depot Square Park is also in the works. Huttle said the project, which will go out for bid shortly, should be ready in time for the September anniversary of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks.

Designed by a small committee, the monument will include a description of the day, the iconic photo of New York City firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero, the names of all Englewood residents who perished in the attacks and a piece of World Trade Center steel, Huttle said.

The remaining capital appropriations will go toward improving multiple city parks, although the specific details won’t be worked out until after the budget is finalized.

“[The city manager] is going to start the day after the budget to reinvent the maintenance program for our parks, our lawns, our grass, our fertilizer, how that’s done, so that when you walk in the park it’s going to shine, beautifully green,” Huttle said.

Councilman Wayne Hamer said he supports undertaking a long range, large-scale beautification initiative in Englewood as long as it's properly planned.

“We don’t need to do it all at one time,” he said, “but we do need to have a schedule or calendar of what it is that we want to start doing and identify the projects for beautification.”

Huttle, who asked the manager to add approximately $200,000 to this year’s capital budget for beautification efforts, said he’d ultimately like to see about $1 million put toward aesthetic improvements to the city.

“The city is our home," he said. "It’s the home of our residents and we all should treat it at such."

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