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2014 Strides
www.suffolknewsherald.com
[BETTER COMMUNITIES]
At left, Opal McCleod shows off the Chuckatuck Volunteer Fire Department, where the Greater Oakland and Chuckatuck Civic League meets. She is the president of the organization. Above, Barbara Artis, president of the Hollywood/Jericho Civic League, holds a framed photo of Ethel Eley, who was president of the civic league for about 12 years before her death.
Catalysts for change story and photo by Tracy Agnew
T
he city of Suffolk has more than 50 civic leagues and homeowners’ associations, and they all have helped their communities become better places. Anton Weaver, acting president of the SaratogaPhiladelphia Civic League, said he joined the civic league because he learned as a child it was important. “My recollection as a child, there was some major improvements brought about in my neighborhood, and the civic league was the catalyst organization behind it,” said Weaver, who grew up in Saratoga. Some of the older people in the community, who are now deceased, helped motivate the city to install sidewalks, close open ditches, run city sewage to the community and get streetlights installed, he said. “There was two gentlemen that were very influential, King Bishop and Bishop Obadiah Colander,”
Weaver said. “All of these projects were promoted through these two gentlemen.” Weaver added that civic leagues are important, because they provide a unified voice to speak for the community. “The civic league is held in high regard when it comes to city-level considerations,” he said. “That’s the importance of the civic league. It is the recognized voice. It is important to get involved with your civic league so your concerns can get addressed.” Civic leagues also provide an outlet to get to know your neighbors, your City Council and School Board representatives and police officers who regularly patrol the neighborhood, others said. “We want to strengthen the relationship with the people in the community and police officers and neighbors,” said Barbara Artis, president of the Hollywood-Jericho Civic League, which she says is the oldest in the city. “When people come to me with their complaints, I will say, ‘Come to
the civic league and express your opinion while Councilman (Charles) Parr is there, and we can do more than just telling me.’” Artis’ civic league, and many others in the community, also organize National Night Out and other events for the community. “At the National Night Out, I get to meet my neighbors,” Artis said. “We like to get as many people involved as possible.” Opal McCleod is president of the Greater Oakland and Chuckatuck Civic League, one of the city’s newest such organizations. It formed in 2008 but already has worked with the city to get streetlights, to reduce speed limits, to extend public water on Everets Road and to help combat crime. “We’ve done great things together to benefit the community,” McCleod said. “It’s important, because it brings the community together with one common purpose, which is to benefit the community and everybody in the community and make the community a better and safer place to be.”