From David Smith.

We have approximately three weeks left in the campaign to secure $36,000 for the Pole Camera Funding. Through this weekend, we have $27,575 in our Camera account. Since several people have asked me about the MANW Grant I suspect they have been asking you as well. So, here is the current state in regards to that activity.

The MANW (Memphis Area Neighborhood Watch) program provides grants to neighborhoods in support of specific crime prevention programs. The maximum grant is $2500 and is funded by the City Council. The next deadline for submitting a grant proposal to the Council is November 15, 2017. Due to the holidays they do not anticipate granting any awards prior to the January 2018 Council Meeting. If we are getting a grant they will notify us in advance. We have already submitted our proposal to the review committee, but for your information, there are several conditions that we had to meet in order to be able to submit a request. Some of them are as follows: 1) We had to have a federal tax id  2) We had to commit to a minimum of 100 volunteer hours in support of our project (thank you Ann, Cammy, Suzanne, and everyone else who have been going door to door for donations); 3) We had to attend a mandatory training class presented by the MANW (Thank you Patsy); and 4) we had to be active participants in our Precinct Neighborhood Watch program and have the Precinct Commander certify our organization in writing (Again thank you Patsy). The council makes the award, but the leadership of MPD provides significant input as to who they think should get the money, so politics is in play. The good news is we, as KSANA and Patsy personally, have for a long time had a very good personal relationship with both Director Rawlings as well as Deputy Director Ryal. In addition, our councilman Colvet is aware of our Association and our project and can be counted on to support our proposal. All good things that make me  feel pretty confident that we will be successful, but we can’t count it until we get the check in hand.

We still need a few more neighbors to step up and give to our fund, three weeks left!!