You can buy a lot of pierogis with $80 grand. Capitol Hill’s Polish Home Association, champion of Polish culture in the Pacific Northwest and host of the Hill’s only annual all-you-can-eat pierogi fest, has been awarded an $80,000 grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Large Project fund:
$80,000 to match for the Polish Home!
Dear Friends of the Polish Home,
We have great news: the Polish Home received an $80,000 grant from the City. However, it is a matching grant and we need to receive new donations before the grant can match them.
The current construction of the Polish Home extension shell variant is almost done. The shell variant includes: the complete building structure under the roof, fully enclosed exterior including doors, windows and siding and a functioning elevator. We expect to obtain the occupancy permit and to open with the new wing and elevator in September, 2009. However, the Polish Home depleted all the reserves and used up a private line of credit for additional financing to speed up the current construction.
Of course, there is still a lot of work left: interior and exterior finishing at the new wing and also remodeling work at the 1st & 2nd floor of the old building. That’s where the grant money will be so helpful to us!
For more on the Large Project fund process, check out this Department of Neighborhoods site. Your organization needs to have its hat in the ring by February to be considered for 2010 so better start planning now.
The Polish Home was one of 19 organizations presented with awards on Saturday at a ceremony attended by outgoing mayor Greg Nickels. Here’s the full list of awards. Note the city mistakenly locating the Polish Home in the CD. Oh well. As long as they spell the name on the check correctly.
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2009 award recipients pose with Mayor Greg Nickels at Saturday’s ceremony (Photo: Lucas Anderson)$80,000 to the Polish Home Association for an expansion and remodeling project (Central District)
- $71,737 to the Artists Collaborative of Southeast Seattle for dance and instrumental music programs that offer positive alternatives for youth and encourage partnerships between families, schools, and community groups. (Southeast Seattle)
- $63,750 to the Committee for Renovation of the West Woodland Field for creating a green sustainable track and a ga-ga ball court and rain garden on the school playground. (Green Lake/Phinney)
- $67,210 to the Global to Local project to create youth-driven approach to creating and producing programming in Delridge and West Seattle. (Delridge/West Seattle)
- $75,000 to the Southeast Seattle Senior Center for the renovation and upgrading of the facility. (Rainier Valley)
- $77,200 to the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center for the ALL ACCESS partnership to empower local youth through arts-based learning. (Delridge)
- $54,849 to the Homeless Place of Remembrance Committee for the creation of an artistic remembrance to honor homeless people who have died. (Downtown)
- $79,700 to the Friends of International Children’s Park for to contribute to the restoration of the park by adding play equipment and commission a public art installation. (International District)
- $54,849 to the Delridge Neighborhood Trails Committee to create kiosks and wayfinding signs to guide pedestrians to parks, business areas, and community resources. (Delridge)
- $50,000 to the Friends of Northlake Wharf for planning efforts to convert an underused piece of waterfront into an active public site for community use. (Lake Union/Fremont)
- $100,000 to the Seward Park Playground Improvement Foundation for construction of a new nature-themed play area at the entrance of Seward Park. (Seward Park)
- $95,100 to the Vietnamese Friendship Association for a community organizing project that will foster youth leadership, civic engagement, and creation of a model those immigrant communities can use to address social and economic inequities. (Southeast Seattle)
- $28,230 to SouthEast Effective Development for marketing and expanding access and use of the Columbia City Gallery and increase opportunities for diverse artists. (Columbia City)
- $60,000 to Kimball Elementary PTSA to create a global learning community by fostering inclusion and support, leadership development, and providing programs and classes for parents. (Beacon Hill)
- $45,000 to the East African Art and Culture Association to work with youth on enhancing multimedia knowledge and skills and to promote cross-cultural art. (Central District)
- $80,000 to the North Seattle Boys and Girls Club for the creation of a plaza and gathering place for Greenwood neighbors. (Greenwood)
- $88,200 to the Concord Elementary PTSA for the creation of a multi-purpose space for outdoor recreation and education. (South Park)
- $90,000 to the Friends of Waterway #18 to create a new gathering place on Lake Union by restoring the shoreline, planting native habitat, and improving access. (Wallingford)
- $98,761 to the West Seattle Junction Association for the creation of a community plaza and green space in the heart of the West Seattle Junction. (West Seattle)
according to the City of Seattle, 18th Ave is in the Central District. The boundary line (again, according to the city) is 17th Ave…
With more cash, they can afford to host more pierogi events :D
Unfortunately, I will never donate to the polish home. I used to live across the street. My mom found some trash, newspapers and a coffee cup, on the sidewalk in front of the homes parking lot. She went to pick it up, like a good citizen, and throw them away in the closest trash cans, which were apparently the Polish Homes trash cans and the guy who runs or owns the home yelled at her to not throw it away in his trach cans. He just stood there and we got out of there, since I seriously thought he was going to hit her.
The Polish Home has been a blight to all of its Capitol Hill neighbors for literally years and years. The board of directors lives on the East Side, and frankly, they rented it out to whoever they could no matter how loud/trash-filled/unpleasant/car clogged the event was going to be. They got the permit for this expansion only after the neighbors took the complaints to the city, and even with the city attorney’s help to get a “good neighbor agreement,” they have had events that violated the noise ordinance anyway. They’re not as completely, totally evil as they’ve been in the past, but they’re still absentee landlords who don’t give a crap about all the apartment-dwellers nearby. Give a donation to a park instead.
Like the above commenters, I live near the Polish Home. I can’t believe the city didn’t consider the PHA’s history of neighbor complaints before selecting it for a “community” grant. The PHA dismissed and ignored our pleas about noise, trash, double parking, public urination, etc. The cops told us they had been answering complaints about the place for years, and they were sick of it. So much for “community.”
I lived next to Dom Polski for a while, but the bi-weekly parties featuring dangerously drunk teens peeling out of the parking lot in giant SUVs convinced me that they will never need my cash for perogis. It’s subsidized binge-drinking in a space totally ignored by the Liquor Control Board.
I’d sooner donate to a sympathetic firebug’s gas-can fund.