The Ellsworth Springs Neighborhood Association was created within the neighborhoods format of the City of Vancouver when the city annexed our area in 1992 by the merger of two associations that had existed to represent unincorporated neighborhoods within Clark County's neighborhoods program. The website is under development but does contain the standard information and links to other useful websites. The site will be expanded as time permits and will including more neighborhood history. The preferred method of contacting the association is by email or at one of the scheduled meetings, but you can contact the current Neighborhood Association chairperson through the City of Vancouver's Office of Neighborhoods if email is inconvenient for you.
Neighborhood associations can and do get grants for improvements within the neighborhood and can influence development decisions. In fact when neighborhood associations formally appeal things like zoning and permit changes the fees charged are typically waived. The volunteers of your association write and normally also distribute the newsletter, but it is printed by the City of Vancouver up to a certain number of pages per year.
All the officers of the association are volunteers who receive no compensation for their services. Meetings are announced on the website in the Community Calendar and often follow newsletters distributed irregularly to each home in the neighborhood. If you have never received a newsletter from our association and have lived here at least a year (or know of others in the neighborhood who did get one), please let us know, so we can correct the distribution problem. We want everyone to be informed of important events. Newsletters are infrequent but when you receive one it contains important information and sometimes coupons for leaf disposal, etc.
Also, some events are not possible without a neighborhood association. The annual neighborhood cleanup where you can dispose for free of junk around your home and yard is only made possible when there are volunteers and a neighborhood association. The city pays for the trash disposal, but association volunteers have to manage the event and direct traffic so everyone doesn't try to unload at the same time. Any neighborhood resident can volunteer to help with anything the association does and any adult neighborhood resident may serve as an officer of the association. Elections are held periodically during one of the general meetings.
Walter Johnson webmaster