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President’s remarks, October 2009 Annual Meeting

That year sure went by fast, didn’t it? I hope the Directors and Vice Presidents enjoyed it as much as I did. Twelve months ago we met and, as your new President, I promised to work hard to increase communication, expand membership, and enhance Gladwyne’s already superior civic conditions.

The Gladwyne Civic Association was established in 1948 to maintain superior civic conditions in Gladwyne and to consider and take appropriate action concerning all questions relating to the welfare of our community. Directors take their responsibility seriously and I am pleased to report that, together, we accomplished a great deal over the past year.

I am even more excited to tell you about the possibilities for the year to come.

Let me mention a few highlights from this year:

  • Gladwyne clean up day and the Memorial Day parade were big successes. Thanks to Bob Foulk and his team for clean-up day and to Joe Brown and his team for the parade. And thank you Commissioner Jenny Brown for singing the national anthem after the parade—a true highlight.
  • Did you know that the Civic maintains the Williamson traffic island and mows the Schuylkill expressway entrance ramp? And, did you know that we purchased plants for the new Superfresh landscaping along Youngsford?
  • Additionally, we rolled out a new website designed to improve our communication and outreach to all residents. You can even pay your dues online. All residents can go to this site for community information and catch up on the latest information on local news.
  • We also updated our Civics’ committee structure to align with our objective to take appropriate action concerning all questions relating to the welfare of our community.
  • We passed resolutions on a variety of quality of life issues, ranging from the Township proposal to make residential Gladwyne a recreation destination via a River Trail, to Open Government and the Sunshine Law to Township spending and taxing.

Plans for next year, include:

  • To strengthen our traditions by retaining our commitment to clean-up day and the Memorial Day Parade.
  • To support our local businesses. Gladwyne’s businesses contribute to our quality of life in very important ways. Promoting and supporting our businesses is essential to maintaining our lifestyle in Gladwyne.
  • Improving the look of the Village and surrounding area with landscape and garden enhancements.
  • Expand our membership. Initiatives to enhance our civic conditions require funding that ONLY an expanding membership can provide. I encourage all of our Directors to promote our membership to your friends and neighbors.
  • The Civic will continue to work with developers to protect existing neighborhoods. When done thoughtfully and carefully, infill development can enhance our community.
  • Continue our fine tradition of engagement on issues affecting Gladwyne. The Civic has always had strong relationships with our four Commissioners and we thank them for their service (Commissioners Gould, Zelov, Brown and Taylor).

Township Commissioner’s can best represent the people when they know what their residents want and what they do not want. Gladwyne Civic Directors are a diverse group representing a broad section of our community, and the positions our Civic Directors take, serve to give our Commissioners a strong sense of where the residents stand.

This meeting brings to a close one Civic year and is the beginning of our new Civic year. We have an ambitious agenda to continue to meet our challenge to protect our unique small town and quality of life in Gladwyne.

I hope that you will check our website, attend more meetings, send me your ideas and comments so we can ALL continue to work together to keep Gladwyne the attractive, friendly and the engaged community that we enjoy living in.

Karen Aydt